Lord of the Lums
by Canadaxter2
Summary: Everyone rejoice! I can finally get more chapters up! I don't know why it didn't work last time...Razorbeard must have hacked my computer.
1. Introduction: The Enslavement

Introduction:  
  
(DISCLAIMER: I am NOT the creator of any of the characters in this fanfic, except Armand, Zy, Sssuzy, and Owlbert. All the other characters were created by UbiSoft or Michael Ancel. Rayman is © 2002 Ubi Soft Entertainment. The character Rayman & all other characters and subjects are all trademarks of Ubi Soft Entertainment. All rights reserved. No part of this fanfic may be copied, reproduced, etc. All violators will be sent to Captain Razorbeard's prison ship and become his slaves...just kidding. All right, let's just get on with the epic story...)  
  
There was no hope left. The world's energy was rapidly fading away... The space robot pirates had invaded the once-peaceful world that Rayman inhabited, and they were now completely dominating, enslaving, and ruining it. Everything was full of anguish, horror, evil, and darkness. It was a sad sight. Now that Rayman, the hero of the world, had been captured and imprisoned, and his fighting powers had been taken away from him, nothing could stop the evil pirates.  
Rayman was an unusual big-eared, orange creature with strong fists. He had just been captured by the space robot pirates, who were constantly searching for innocent prey and had imprisoned him in a cold, dark caged room on their prison ship. As a matter of fact, almost all the other people and creatures of Rayman's world had been reduced to slaves by now. Rayman wanted to escape. He was feeling sad, knowing that nothing could stop the pirates now that Rayman had been captured and his powers were gone. Except for the clumsy Clark, all of the warriors of Rayman's world had been imprisoned on the ship. The pirates had made all the people's powers vanish by destroying the Heart of the World, which had provided all the energy and power for all the people--and the 1,000 Yellow "Lums" of energy which made up the Heart of the World had been scattered and weren't together anymore--they were needed to give the people all their powers, and keep everything in balance and harmony. Now, everything was chaos and panic. The leader of the Robo-Pirates, the fierce Admiral Razorbeard, was piloting this flying Space Pirate ship over the land, with a mean look in his eyes, determined to conquer the universe! The number of slaves on board was now 18,914 and constantly rising...  
Several of the Robo-Pirates marched back and forth across the creaking floorboards inside their flying prison ship, while others were out on the earth, seeking more slaves. The slaves who had already been captured, inside their dark caged rooms were frightened, weary, and moaning things like, "Spare us..." "Water..." "O...ooohhhh..." "Help..." However, the pirates didn't seem to be paying much attention to them! The pirates just marched back and forth across the creaking floorboards inside their flying prison ship...  
Rayman was sitting inside his caged room tiredly. He couldn't escape. The front of his caged room was blocked by a blue laser forcefield, and the exit at the back of his room was blocked off by a wire grate. Across from Rayman's caged room, there was the cage where his brother, Armand, was held captive in.  
"Kind of boring here, isn't it?" sighed Armand.  
"Yeah, and scary too," added Rayman, who could hear Armand from his room.  
"We'd better find a way to escape and get back at the pirates," sighed Armand, "otherwise the world will be ruined forever..."  
"Don't worry," said Rayman. "When I got kidnapped by Razorbeard, my friend Globox was nearby and he saw what was happening. I called to Globox and told him to go see Ly the fairy for help. Maybe she'll help Globox find a way to rescue me..."  
Globox was a big, blue frog-like creature. The pirates hadn't kidnapped Globox yet.  
"Yeah," sighed Armand, "Globox better succeed in rescuing us..."  
Rayman nodded. Then, he fell asleep in his cold caged room...  
  
Meanwhile, the pirates had just captured one more prisoner.  
"Captain Razorbeard, we've brought in another one!" yelled the first Robo-Pirate.  
"Excellent!" yelled Razorbeard. "Soon, once we have enough slaves from this world, we'll fly off to the next planet!"  
They had just captured Globox, the large blue frog-like creature.  
"Leave me alone! Leave me alone!" yelled Globox repeatedly, at the top of his lungs! But the pirates didn't listen to him.  
Globox had the special ability to create thunder clouds and lightning over enemies' heads to defeat them...but his powers were gone, unfortunately, because the Heart of the World was destroyed--and, without all the Lums together, couldn't provide any energy for the people. Globox, when he had been captured, had tried to do his Rain Dance and create a thunder cloud, but failed. Rayman had had the ability to shoot silver balls of energy from his fists, before the pirates had destroyed the Heart of the World and had captured him...he had tried to shoot a ball of energy at the pirates to defeat them all, but it failed too. Everyone's energy was disappearing...  
It turned out that the pirates threw Globox into the same caged room as Rayman! (The pirates were worried they'd run out of space to keep all their thousands of slaves, so they had started bunching some of the slaves together in the same cages.) The pirates didn't know it, but this was an advantage, because Globox seemed to have something with him (which he had received earlier from Ly, the kind fairy) that could help Rayman out...  
Rayman was still sleeping, dreaming about escaping and getting back at the evil pirates. Then Ly, the fairy, appeared in Rayman's mind and spoke: "Wake up, Rayman...I've brought help for you..."  
"Oh, yay!" thought Rayman. Then Rayman awoke and rubbed his eyes. He felt extremely tired and weak. He had felt like this ever since the pirates had destroyed the Heart of the World and captured him. Everything in Rayman's world which could live, think, and move was given their energy by the tiny magical lights which they called "Lums"...and now this energy core had been broken by the pirates when they had destroyed the Heart of the World... If the people were now all slaves, then how did the pirates expect them to do so much hard work, if all their energy was disappearing? The pirates weren't very smart, were they? They had never thought of that!  
  
Rayman looked around his room on the prison ship and immediately noticed Globox standing in the same room as him!  
"Rayman?" said Globox, surprised that they were still together.  
"GLOBOX! MY FRIEND!" yelled Rayman, running up to him and hugging him.  
"Are you okay, by the way?" wondered Globox. "I'm feeling very weak."  
  
"So am I..." replied Rayman. "All my powers have disappeared...and I wonder how we'll get out of here? You know, Globox, I think this might be the end..."  
And it sure seemed like it. Soon, all the energy of the world would completely disappear...and no one would have any energy anymore...  
"No, not the end!" Globox spoke. "I have a special gift from Ly, the fairy. She requested me to give this to you, if I got caught and placed on this ship with you..."  
"Oh? Really?" spoke Rayman, excitedly! He wondered, "What is it?"  
Globox then pulled out a glowing Silver Lum of energy! Silver Lums were much more special and more valuable than the Yellow Lums! The fairies had crafted these special Silver Lums, which could give the people even more power than Yellow Lums, as well as enabling the people to gain new abilities!  
Rayman quickly picked up this Silver Lum. It felt warm and light.  
"Incredible!" yelled Rayman! "I can feel its energy building up in me!...YAHOO!!!"  
"That's great!" yelled Globox.  
"Maybe, I can shoot balls of energy from my fists again! Globox, I think we're saved!!!"  
Oops. Rayman had yelled so loudly that the Robo-Pirates had heard him.  
"Did you hear that?" yelled one of the henchmen to Razorbeard. "He might use that power to break free from his cage!"  
"Arrrrrgh!!!!!" roared Razorbeard, furiously. "He musn't escape! He was supposed to be my most obedient slave! I'll go deal with him...I'll conviscate that stupid Silver Lum from him..."  
Then, Razorbeard stomped loudly and angrily towards Rayman's caged room.  
"Quick, Rayman," whispered Globox quickly. "Shoot a ball of energy at the grate at the back of the room, to break it open...then, we'll head through it and escape! And hurry, 'cause I hear Razorbeard's footsteps. He might try to stop us!"  
"Yes," said Rayman, creating a small, silver ball of energy in his fists, which slowly grew into a bigger ball. "When we get out--I mean, if we do get out--let's go see Ly, the fairy, so she can give me the rest of my powers back!" Without hesitating, he aimed the silver ball of energy at the back door of his cage, and fired it. The door burst open! Rayman and Globox hurried through it, just before Razorbeard came to stop them.  
"Hey! What about me?" frowned Armand. "Aren't you going to get the rest of us off this prison ship?"  
"Don't worry," Rayman called to Armand, "I'll soon find a way to rescue the rest of you..."  
Behind this back door, Rayman and Globox found themselves in the inside of a long pipeline, which was part of the ship. Rayman and Globox slid through the inside of it, to the other end of it. It was very slippery because this pipe sloped downwards! When they quickly reached the end of it, they came to an opening leading out of this pipe, and outside the prison ship! Rayman slid out through this opening, ahead of Globox, and through the opening at the end of the pipeline. Rayman was now standing on a tiny, narrow wooden plank sticking out of the ship. Rayman gazed down at the ground, which was 1,000 feet below the flying ship. He could see the forests, the marshlands, the cliff zone, and the Iron Mountains from way up here! It looked like a long way down. Everything on the ground at the bottom looked like teensy-tiny dots from way up here! How would Rayman get down safely?  
Maybe Rayman could glide down there! Rayman had the ability to make his hair spin around, just like helicopter blades spinning, allowing him to glide safely down across long distances, using his "helicopter hair".  
Rayman was about to start gliding down, but then he thought: How would Globox get down?  
Rayman didn't get a lot of time to think about this, because suddenly, Globox came sliding into Rayman, from behind him. He bumped into Rayman, and this caused Rayman and Globox to both go flying off the wooden plank, and plummeting down to the ground rapidly below.  
Rayman was scared, and he screamed, "OOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!" This would be a very hard landing, it seemed... 


	2. Chapter 1: The Landing

The Woods of Light...  
  
Ker-PLUNK!--PLUNK! went the two of them, as they landed on the grassy ground, 1,000 feet below the flying pirate ship! Yes, it was a very hard landing.  
Rayman and his buddy Globox had just escaped--and just barely escaped- -from the Robo-Pirates' prison ship. The two of them had landed in a sunny, forested area. Here, in this quiet, calm clearing in the forest, there was green grass, colourful butterflies flying, a slowly-flowing river, and some yellow and green plants and purple mushrooms along the riverbank. This was the Woods of Light. Rayman was hurt and dizzy after falling from those heights, but he soon recovered from his fall. He slowly stood up, brushed the dirt off himself, and looked around in all directions. Hey! Where did Globox go? Globox wasn't anywhere in sight, anymore! Rayman, feeling very confused and worried, ran forwards and jumped over a fallen log, looking all around to see if Globox was anywhere.  
  
"GLOBOOOOOX!!!!!" Rayman called, at the very top of his voice, disturbing the peacefulness and quietness of the forest!  
A small, green fly had heard Rayman's shouts. It flew towards Rayman, following where Rayman's voice was coming from, and buzzed: "Yo, Rayman! What's up?"  
"Hey! You're not Globox!" spoke Rayman!  
"Nope, I'm Murfy!" smiled the fly.  
"Do you know where Globox went?" asked Rayman, concerned. "He was with me a few minutes ago and then when I looked again, he had disappeared mysteriously!"  
"Nope, I dunno. Sorry!" frowned Murfy. "But he must be here somewhere! Maybe he went to the bathroom behind a tree...just kidding! You know, all the other creatures are spreading word around the forest about your escape, and that you are going to get your powers back from Ly the fairy, so you can stop the Robo-Pirates! Is that correct?"  
"Yes," answered Rayman.  
"Well,"continued Murfy, "I'll be your guide! Would you like me to come with you, and help you by telling you all about the land and the obstacles you'll have to face? 'Cuz you may seriously need my help!"  
"Uh...sure," said Rayman. "Let's go!"  
"All right," buzzed Murfy. "First, head over to that tunnel that the river is flowing down through. There seems to be something special inside that tunnel!"  
So, Rayman ran over to this tunnel, Murfy following him--and inside this tunnel, there was a tiny, metal cage hanging from the ceiling above. He could see a bright object shining behind the bars of the cage...  
"Rayman, try smashing that cage open," suggested Murfy, "by shooting a ball of energy from your fists at it!"  
Rayman hit it once, with the energy from his fists. The cage shook and swung back and forth, but didn't break yet.  
"Dang it, it didn't break!" shouted Rayman.  
"Hit the cage again," said Murfy.  
Rayman shot another silver ball of energy at it. This time, the cage smashed open! There was something tiny, shiny, and yellow coming out of it.  
Murfy flew over and spoke: "Great! You've just smashed a pirate cage! Destroy lots of them along the way; they're contain lots of energy!"  
  
"Oh?" said Rayman.  
"Yes!" smiled Murfy. "You see that bright sphere over there?"  
Rayman stared at the bright, yellow sphere that had come out of the cage. Then he spoke up, "Hey! Is that, by any chance, a Yellow Lum?"  
"Ooh, yes! Yes!" replied Murfy, excitedly! "Make sure you gather lots of them, too! They'll give you access to secret places!"  
Rayman picked up this Yellow Lum. The Lum felt warm and light, probably weighing less than a feather. He continued down through the river tunnel. Would there be more of the scattered Yellow Lums there? When he came out of this tunnel, he found himself on the riverbank, on the right side of the blue river.  
"Whoa! This looks like a very beautiful, gorgeous area!" observed Rayman, gazing at the greenery along the riverbank and at the beautiful butterflies and dragonflies. "But, of course, I can't let myself get distracted too long by this pretty scenery! The world's energy is rapidly fading, and we still must recover it! The fate of the world is in my hands...I mean, fists!"  
Why was Rayman the one who had to save the world, anyway? Well, his friends all knew that Rayman was brave and strong--and as you know, he was also the only prisoner who had managed to escape from Razorbeard's ship-- also, as a matter of fact, he had once saved the world before, from another highly dangerous creature called Mr. Dark, but that's another story...  
Rayman stepped out of the shallow, flowing river and walked down the forested path along the right side of the riverbank. He jumped up to a green ledge, where there was yet another Yellow Lum sitting there, lucky for him!  
He picked it up, and put it in his pocket too. Now, he had two Yellow Lums, but, sigh, he still had 998 more to go!  
"Even if you can't get all the missing Yellow Lums," Murfy spoke, "just try to find as many as you can."  
Up another green ledge, there was a third Yellow Lum! It shone brightly. And, then, at the end of the path along the riverbank, there was a fourth Yellow Lum! Then Rayman noticed there was another ledge, much higher-up, on the left side of the river.  
"How can I get up to that ledge across the river?" Rayman wondered. "Oh, yes! Of course! I know!"  
Rayman remembered he had the ability to spin the hair on his head around, just like a helicopter spinning, and he could use his hair to help him glide through the sky, and across long areas, such as across this river! So Rayman glided across this river, to the ledge on the other side, using his "helicopter hair".  
Here, there was a path leading into the deep woods, where Globox's house was! Three of Globox's sons were sitting here. Looks like Razorbeard hadn't captured THEM yet, because they were hiding very well in the forest. They were looking very worried. The other 648 of Globox's sons were probably running around the other parts of the deep woods, searching everywhere for Globox.  
"Maybe these two sons know something about where Globox went off to?" wondered Rayman. But before he could ask them where he was, they yelled, "Daddy Globox saved Rayman! Where's Daddy?" Obviously, they didn't know where he was, either!  
Rayman thought. "Uh, that is to say, we got separated, and...uh..."  
  
Globox's sons were shocked by this news.  
"No daddy Globox?" they cried. "We want our daddy back!"  
"Now, don't worry, kiddies!" said Rayman, reassuringly. "I'll bring him back!"  
"Even though you don't know where he is, Rayman," laughed Murfy.  
"But first, I've got to find Ly, the fairy. She likes to hang around here. Do you know where she is?"  
The sons thought for a few seconds. Then, pools of tears shot out of their eyes rapidly, like miniature water-sprinklers! "The mean, old Robo- Pirates took Ly over there!" They pointed over to a nearby cave entrance!  
  
"Ly's been captured, too?!?!?!?!?! Hmm..." Rayman thought. "I've got to set her free!"  
Rayman then ran through this cave entrance that the sons had pointed to. Murfy followed him. Inside this cave, there were two walls that were very close to each other.  
"I'll bet that you'd like to know how to climb!" said Murfy to Rayman. "You see those two walls that are close together?"  
"Duh, yes," said Rayman.  
"Go stand between them," continued Murfy, "and jump up, and grab hold onto them. Then, keep holding onto them, and jump up, again! Repeat this manuever until you reach the very top."  
"All right," said Rayman!  
"Good luck, Big-nose!" said Murfy. "I'll meet you up at the top!" Then, Murfy flew up to the top of the cave, leaving Rayman to climb up between the two narrow walls. Rayman climbed up them, by jumping up them repeatedly, just as Murfy had instructed him to do. At the top of the cave, there was a fifth Yellow Lum floating in mid-air!  
"YAHOO!" yelled Rayman! He had wall-jumped to the top of the cave successfully.  
There was also an opening in the top of the cave, leading outside the cave!  
When he came outside this cave, he was now standing in the middle of a small meadow. A huge, marvellous, stone-walled castle was standing in this area. Another pirate cage hung over this area, on a vine. A voice, which seemed to be coming from inside this cage, was desperately shouting, "Help!...Help!..."  
Murfy told Rayman to break open this cage, too.  
Rayman had expected there to be more Yellow Lums in here (but Lums can't shout for help!)--but instead, four small, blue, big-nosed creatures popped out of it. The first one had a crown on his head.  
"Splendid, Rayman!" said the first one. "I'm the King of the Teensies, and this is our castle! And I congratulate you on your courage so far!"  
Just then, the second Teensie took the crown off the first one's head.  
"Don't listen to him!" said the second Teensie. "I'm the King of the Teensies!"  
"But..." said Rayman.  
Then, the third one took the crown off the second one's head, and put it on. He said, "No, I'm the real king!"  
"Come on!" shouted Rayman! "Who's the real king?"  
"It's me!" repeated the third Teensie.  
"It's ME!" said the fourth Teensie, taking away the crown from the third Teensie.  
"Me," said the third Teensie.  
"Me," said the second.  
"Me," said the first.  
"Me," said the second.  
"ME!" "ME!" "NO, ME!" The argument went on.  
Rayman, who was getting really annoyed and impatient by now, yelled, "STOP!!!!!"  
"That's right!" said Murfy. "We absolutely must find Ly, the fairy! Do you guys know where the heck she is?"  
"Uh..." said the second Teensie (taking the crown away from the third Teensie and putting it on), "...this isn't easy to say, but I have to tell you this.....the Robo-Pirates have taken Ly to the Fairy Glades, and they've locked her up at one of their strongholds!"  
"Poor Ly," sighed Murfy. "Glad I'm not her!"  
"And you'll show us the way to get there, right?" said Rayman.  
"Yup!" the Teensies all replied!  
"Only us Teensies know the way there," explained the second Teensie. "Opening the doorways to other worlds is, in fact, our job! You'll need to go through the portals in our Council Chamber. They will teleport you to many other worlds, including the Fairy Glades. Just come with us inside our castle, and we'll show you!"  
Rayman and Murfy followed the Teensies as they marched into their stone castle. They walked through a very long hallway, with a red carpet, and entered a room that was like a large, round, dark void. This was the Council Chamber of the Teensies. There were a few closed portals here.  
The second Teensie stepped up to one of the portals, pointed to it, and said, "You see, this is the way to the Fairy Glades. However, the passage requires five Yellow Lums of energy to activate this portal."  
So Rayman checked his Yellow Lum inventory. "Yup! Luckily, we've got exactly five Yellow Lums!" he said to the Teensies.  
He handed these five Yellow Lums over to the Teensies. The Teensies used some of the energy from these Lums to activate the first magic portal in this dark void. Rayman stared into it. This magic portal looked yellow and swirly. It glowed brightly.  
"Prepare yourself for a great journey..." announced the Teensies!  
Rayman, after staring at the strange energy portal for a few seconds, was about to jump into it, but then he remembered another important question: "Oh! You've told us where Ly is, but do you guys know anything about Globox's whereabouts?"  
"Sorry," replied the Teenies, "we are unsure. It currently remains a mystery to us..."  
"Oh..." sighed Rayman. "I wonder if we'll ever find out..."  
Then, Rayman jumped into the portal. And Murfy followed Rayman through this portal. NOTE: Is my story getting boring? If you've already played Rayman 2, then you already know the events in the game, so you probably wouldn't bother reading this, would you? Well, I am in the process of editing it and putting in a bunch of parts that hadn't been in the game. Seriously. I am going to add that in soon. Trust me. It may take a while, but I will do it.  
  
TO BE CONTINUED..... 


	3. Chapter 2: The Stronghold

The Fairy Glades...  
  
Rayman and Murfy were now inside the portal. The portal swirled around and around, faster and faster as they were inside it and getting teleported...  
"I'm gonna get dizzy," said Rayman.  
"I'm gonna get sick," said Murfy, as the portal swirled faster. "I might start puking..." His face turned greener than usual...but soon, the swirly portal dropped Rayman and Murfy out into the Fairy Glades!  
As they landed on the solid ground, Murfy buzzed: "We must rescue Ly the fairy!"  
"Yup, the Teensies said she's being held captive in a stronghold here," Rayman remembered.  
"Also, pick up any Yellow Lums that you find in this area," buzzed Murfy. "I sense that there are 50 more of them scattered here..."  
Would Rayman be able to free Ly and retrieve the Yellow Lums? The world's energy was still vanishing fast! Soon there would be none left. If Rayman didn't succeed in his quest, then this would mean total DOOM!  
Rayman was in an area that was similar in appearance to the clearing in the Woods of Light. It was a grassy, quiet area, surrounded by some greenish-brown cliff walls. There were red ferns, green grass, and a deep river. The afternoon air was clear, and the bright afternoon sun was shining in the sky above. There was a wooden bridge leading over a deep pond. Rayman crossed this short, brown wooden bridge, which stopped halfway across the pond, at another grassy ledge sticking out of the middle of the pond. This piece of ground had a purple mushroom on it. He walked past it. The path then began to zig-zag across the pond, and at the end of it, there was a cave entrance in some cliff walls. Unfortunately, this cave entrance was currently blocked by a wooden gate. Rayman couldn't get past it, yet. He tried shooting energy from his fists to break down this gate. It didn't work; the gate was too strong. Rayman saw there were also two more of Globox's sons standing near the gate, who were hopping around and seemed to be searching for Globox. They spotted Rayman and Murfy approaching. They started bouncing up and down excitedly, yelling, "Hurry, Rayman! We want our daddy back!"  
"Do you know for sure that he's somewhere in this area?" asked Rayman.  
"We don't know," replied the sons, "but we hope we're getting closer!"  
Rayman still didn't know how to open the gate blocking the cave entrance. He turned around, going back down the zig-zagged path, which was over the lake. It looked like he'd have to take a detour somehow, to find a switch or a button which could cause this sturdy gate to open. He returned to the ground where the giant purple mushroom was. "Hmm..." he thought, while sitting by it. "Where can I go now?..."  
"Come on, you ain't thinking hard enough about what to do! Try bouncing on top of that mushroom!" suggested Murfy.  
"Bounce on top of it?" said Rayman, perplexed. Still, Rayman did that. He jumped on top of this giant mushroom--he then discovered that it was bouncy like a trampoline! Rayman bounced up into the air, and it helped him reach some monkey bars high-up above. He climbed across them. Murfy followed him.  
"Maybe, if I climb to the end of these monkey bars," thought Rayman, "I'll be able to reach a ledge where there's a button or a switch or something which will cause that wooden gate to open!"  
"Now you're thinking!" buzzed Murfy!  
There were a few Yellow Lums up here, too. (He now had 6 from this area.) When he got to the end of the monkey bars, there was a grassy ledge. He dropped down onto it. On this grassy ledge, there was the entrance to another tunnel. There wasn't any gate blocking this one. Rayman ran through it. It led to an outdoor pool with lily pads on it. There were a few plants and flowers around the perimeter of this lake. On the right of this lake, there was a high cliff wall.  
"I still don't see any red button which could open the gate back in the first area," frowned Rayman.  
"Unless maybe it's invisible?" Murfy thought.  
"Hmmm...are there any Yellow Lums at the bottom of this lake, by any chance?" Rayman wondered. He was about to swim through the lake, but then Murfy suddenly yelled: "Nooo, Rayman! Beware of piranhas! Swimming not advised!" But it was too late. Rayman had already got bitten by a piranha in the lake. "OWCH! Those stupid piranhas!" yelled Rayman! "Can't they just eat each other, instead of biting me?" He turned around and got out of the lake!  
So, instead of swimming through the lake, Rayman spun his hair like a helicopter again, helping him glide over the lake. Actually, he glided over to the first lily pad on the lake, and he stood on top of it. From there, he glided to the next lily pad, and so on, until he reached the end of the piranha-infested lake.  
From here, there were some green, grassy ledges sticking out of the cliff wall on the right. Rayman jumped across them. At the top ledge, there was another corridor-like tunnel. Rayman walked through it.  
"Sheesh, we have to go all this way just to reach one little button," frowned Murfy. "And we aren't even sure IF there really is a button anywhere here!"  
In this tunnel, Rayman turned a very sharp right corner. They came to a small, round cave room, inside the cliffs. The walls were green. There was a doorway at the end of this room, leading outside again. Suddenly, before Rayman could go through this doorway, a whole bunch of black, flying eels came swarming towards Rayman! Rayman was shocked when he saw how many there were! He hid behind a rock in a corner of the cave room, while firing his silver energy balls at them. The black flying eels then collapsed and disappeared. Rayman then came out from behind the rock, and walked to the other end of the room where the cave exit was. He came outside again. He was now back in the first area where the mushroom and the wooden gate were, but in a higher-up part of that area. He was now standing ON TOP of those monkey bars that he had climbed across earlier! When standing on top of the monkey bars, he could reach a red button, which he could see up on one of the cliff walls. So, Rayman shot energy from his fists at this red button. This caused the button to be activated! He then looked down at where the wooden gate was, and he saw that it was slowly opening! Yes, the button had caused the wooden gate (blocking the first cave in the river area) to open! Before gliding back down to the river area below the monkey bars, he noticed a pirate cage, which he smashed open with the energy from his fists! This cage contained three Yellow Lums.  
"Great!" cheered Murfy. "You now have 9 Yellow Lums from this area! Keep searching!"  
Rayman glided off the monkey bars, and back down to the river area where the gate had previously been shut. Since it was now open, he decided to run through it!  
"Can we come with you?" pleaded the two sons. "We want to see if Globox is somewhere there!"  
"All right, you can come with us, if you'd like," said Rayman to the two of Globox's sons. "Just be careful!"  
"Yippee!" said the two sons. So then, Rayman, Murfy, and the two of Globox's sons (we'll just call them the Baby Globoxes) proceeded further, into the tunnel that had previously been blocked by a gate.  
"Soon, we should be getting closer to Ly!" buzzed Murfy in excited anticipation.  
"And hopefully our daddy!" added Globox's sons in anticipation, even though they weren't sure Globox was really there!  
Beyond this gate, the next obstacle was a tunnel containing yet another waterslide which Rayman and the two Baby Globoxes slid down ("Woo- hoo! This is fun!" the two Baby Globoxes shouted while sliding down), and there were even a few Yellow Lums on the way! Rayman now had 15 Yellow Lums. At the end of the waterfall, they were now outside this cave, and in another outdoor area.  
Here, in this next outdoor area, there were many trees. There was also a huge pit in the ground, with brambles at the bottom. Rayman didn't want to fall into it, because there would be no way out! Rayman glided over to the end of this giant pit, with his Amazing Helicopter Hair. Murfy flew over it. No problem for them. But how would the two Baby Globoxes get over this pit? They still wanted to come with Rayman! Luckily, on the other side of the pit, there was a button, which Rayman shot at, to make a bridge rise over the pit...so now the two Baby Globoxes could cross over to the other side!  
By now, the sun was starting to set. This was a long journey, and they had been outside for a very long time by now. Across the bramble pit, there was a wide-open grassy area, and as they ran through it, a whole horde of black flying eels suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and surrounded them!  
"Aaaaah!" screamed the two Baby Globoxes, and they ran away and hid behind some bushes to avoid them, while Rayman dealt with them. Rayman shot energy from his fists at these annoying flying eels, as they came swarming towards him, and they all got hit by Rayman's fists and collapsed and disappeared.  
Then, it was safe for the two Baby Globoxes to come out, again. They continued further, and from here, there was a path leading into the deep woods.  
Then, suddenly, a fairy named Zy (who was one of Ly's cousins), came flying towards them and warned them: "Look out! The pirates have just created a forest fire which is burning down this area of the woods! The pirates are burning down the forest to make room for their hideouts which they are building!"  
"Oh, no!" panicked Rayman. "We've got to put out that fire! But how?"  
"I guess you can now call this area the Fiery Glades, instead of the Fairy Glades," frowned Murfy.  
"Hey, Rayman," said the first Baby Globoxes, "remember, we Globoxes can do rain-dances, to make rain clouds appear!" So, the two Baby Globoxes performed a rain dance to put out the flames in the forest...but beacuse they were just small Baby Globoxes, they couldn't create very big rain clouds. They could only make small ones, which weren't big enough to douse the forest fire.  
"Hmm...it's too bad our daddy isn't here," said the first Baby Globox, "cause he can make really big rain clouds! But now he's been imprisoned by the pirates..."  
"Hey," said the second Baby Globox, "maybe if we get a whole bunch of our brothers to gather around here, then we can use our combined powers to create several rain clouds, and maybe that will be enough to put out the fire!" So the two Baby Globoxes went off to get some of their brothers. They came back a few minutes later to where Rayman was. Then, all the Baby Globoxes stood by the forest fire, and used their combined power to create several rain clouds. These were still small rain clouds, but now there were very many of them. There were now enough rain clouds to put out the forest fire!  
"Phew, that was a lot of work," said one of the Baby Globoxes.  
They could now proceed further into the forest, and to the pirates' hideout...at last! The first two Baby Globoxes continued following Rayman and Murfy...while all the others just went back to their home in the Woods of Light.  
  
It was getting very dark outside. The sun had set, and the moon was becoming visible. Rayman, Murfy, and the two Baby Globoxes entered the wide-open, grassy area where there was the hideout which the pirates had built. This was a large building made of wood, and it consisted of several windows, storeys, and balconies. The grassy area between Rayman and the hideout covered a very huge area of land. Rayman and the two Baby Globoxes were about to run across this wide stretch of grassy land and up to the pirates' hideout. However, it was so dark that they didn't notice the pair of Robo-Pirates walking towards them!  
"Arrgh! Get them!" the first one yelled! They then grabbed the two Baby Globoxes and ran off with them! They took them into their hideout.  
"Oh, no!" frowned Murfy. "The two Baby Globoxes are being captured too!"  
"Dang it," said Rayman. "Why didn't I just shoot at those two pirates!" Rayman was so mad that he ran up to a nearby cliff wall, and started banging his head against it repeatedly.  
"Come on," buzzed Murfy. "Let's go after them!"  
But as the pirates took the two Baby Globoxes into their hideout, the pirates closed the front door, leaving no way for Rayman to get in.  
Rayman ran around the grassy area, wondering how to enter the hideout now that the front door was locked. He couldn't see any open entrance doors or anything! Well, actually, there was a wooden trapdoor on the ground, which seemed like it might lead into a part of the hideout. Rayman tried pushing it open...but unfortunately it was locked, too. Was Rayman stymied?  
While they were thinking about this, they noticed a small cavern off to the far side of the area, containing a whole bunch more Yellow Lums (so far, he had now retrieved a total of 25 Yellow Lums), but there wasn't any button here to open the doors of the hideout. After collecting the Lums, Rayman then turned back out of this cavern and returned outside to the area where the pirates' hideout was! They still were puzzled about how to get inside the hideout. Maybe it was impossible. They hadn't seen any buttons to open any doors...  
Then suddenly, as they stepped closer to the hideout, another very tough-looking, mean-looking Robo-Pirate (on one of the top balconies) saw Rayman and Murfy approaching. It jumped down to another balcony, and started throwing a whole bunch of cannonballs down from the balcony, trying to hit Rayman! Of course, Rayman dodged them all. The Robo-Pirate continued raining more cannonballs down onto the ground. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! they went, as they hit the ground. Their explosions looked like fireworks in the night.  
But then, one of the Robo-Pirates' huge cannonballs accidentally hit the trapdoor (when Rayman was standing near it), blowing the trapdoor open!  
  
"D'oh!" said the pirate.  
"Cool!" yelled Rayman! He could now go down the trapdoor to get inside the hideout! "Now, let's rescue Ly and the two Baby Globoxes!"  
He glided down through the trapdoor. He landed in the basement of the hideout.  
It was very damp and quiet down in here. There was only the sound of dripping water. There was a pool of toxic, green-coloured sludge, ahead on the floor. "Yecch!" yelled Rayman as he looked down at it--and his voice echoed through the basement. There were also a few boxes floating on top of this sludge.  
"Hey, Ray! Use your helicopter hair to glide and land on top of the boxes that are floating in the sludge," said Murfy. So Rayman glided across them.  
When he got across to the other side of the toxic pool in the basement, he landed on a grey, stone floor. It felt very hard and very cold. Suddenly, the green slime started rising! Rayman felt scared. He looked around and saw there was also a spider's cobweb covering the wall in front of him.  
"Quick!" yelled Murfy. "Grab onto that web and climb up it!"  
So Rayman grabbed onto this giant cobweb-like rope and climbed up it, to get away from the rising slime in the basement. Up, up, up he climbed. He had to watch out, because two cannon-like objects were hanging from the ceiling above him, and were shooting out small but deadly cannonballs down at Rayman, trying to knock him off the webs! Rayman moved to the right, then the left, of the web, to avoid these cannonballs. When he made it to the top, at last, he jumped off. He was now on the first floor of the hideout. The slime had stopped rising.  
On the first floor, there was a door on the right. Rayman looked up and saw a sign above this doorway which read:  
"PRISONERS' DUNGEONS"  
Rayman quickly ran towards this doorway.  
"I'm sure Ly and the two Baby Globoxes are here!" he yelled. Suddenly, before he got through this doorway, a blue laser forcefield appeared, blocking the doorway to the dungeons. Rayman groaned. He couldn't get past these blue lasers.  
"This seems like a real prob-lum," buzzed Murfy.  
It looked like Rayman would have to take another detour again. He could see a red button which was up on an indoor balcony above him, but he couldn't reach it yet. There was another hallway on the left of Rayman, so he walked through it, hoping to find a staircase leading up to that indoor balcony where the button was.  
At the end of the hallway on the left, there was a doorway leading to an outside area behind the hideout. By now, it was almost midnight, and Rayman could hear owls hooting...and some Robo-Pirates snoring.  
"Careful!" buzzed Murfy. "There are lots of Robo-Pirates in this area! Your footsteps might wake up some of the Robo-Pirates in this area. If you do, you might have to battle one! To defeat them, try shooting silver balls of energy from your fists; but beware of the energy that the pirates shoot at you!"  
Rayman was getting frightened. Still, it was up to him to stop the pirates, so he carefully proceeded further...tiptoeing as quietly as possible. Sure enough, there was a Robo-Pirate on the grass up ahead! Fortunately, it was asleep. Unfortunately, it awoke when it heard Rayman approaching--even though Rayman was slowly tiptoeing!  
"Arrrrrgh!" it yelled, pulling out a shotgun and started firing small, red bursts of energy--three at a time--from its gun. Rayman dodged these shots and he shot his own silver balls of energy at the pirate! The battle was a quick one, and the Robo-Pirate was down on the ground within a few hits--but Rayman could sense that more Robo-Pirates were up ahead!  
Rayman was still outside. There was a doorway leading to another room inside the hideout. As Rayman predicted, there was a second Robo- Pirate sleeping in this room. Of course, Rayman was going to change that! The pirate awoke when Rayman entered the new room. Rayman fought it the same way he had done with the first Robo-Pirate. Bang, bing, bzoot, shoot, ka-pow. Finished!  
"YEAH!" yelled Rayman, after defeating the pirate successfully. Then, a vertical grate lowered from the ceiling. Rayman could climb up it, just like a rope, to reach the second floor of the hideout. But before Rayman could climb up it, a third Robo-Pirate, from the second floor, suddenly climbed down from the grate, and dropped down onto the floor where Rayman was! It fired at Rayman. Rayman was getting tired of shooting back at them, by now.  
There was a gunpowder keg lying on the floor. Rayman picked it up (it was very heavy), and threw it at the stupid Robo-Pirate. KA-BOOM! went the keg when he threw it! The pirate blew up into tiny pieces.  
Rayman then climbed the grate on the wall, to reach the second floor.  
  
There was a door on the second floor, which Rayman shot at (with the energy from his fists) to break it open.  
Behind this doorway, there was a room containing a big gap at the bottom! Across this gap, on the other side, there was a ledge with a doorway, but this was blocked by a blue laser forcefield as well! The red button to turn THESE lasers off, was located on the wall near the bottom of the big gap! At the bottom of this big gap, there was a floor made of cobwebs. A red laser was moving back and forth over the floor, and it looked as if Rayman had to avoid touching that red laser!  
Rayman looked down, nervously.  
"I don't suppose YOU could fly down there and hit that button, Murfy?" asked Rayman, who was too scared to do it.  
"Remember, I can't shoot!" said Murfy.  
"Then I guess I'll have to do it..." groaned Rayman. So he slowly glided down to the bottom of the gap, with his helicopter hair, down to where the button was. He tried to avoid touching the red moving laser. He wondered if he would succeed. He did. He shot at the button, and this caused the blue laser forcefield, which had been blocking the entrance to the next room, to turn off. But how would Rayman, who was still down in the gap at the bottom of the room, be able to get back up to the ledge where the doorway to the next room was? Fortunately, the cobwebs that made up the floor happened to be bouncy like a trampoline, and this allowed Rayman to bounce back out of the gap and get back up to the ledge on the other side!  
Rayman and Murfy continued further. Behind this doorway, there was a hallway with a few steps, leading slightly downwards. There were also two blue lasers in this hallway, which Rayman had to jump over. When he finally got over them and through this hallway, he ended up...  
...on the indoor balcony where there was the red button which could turn off the first blue laser forcefield, which had been blocking the door to the Prisoners' Dungeons, back on the first floor! Rayman shot energy at this button, and sure enough, it caused the blue lasers to be deactivated!  
  
"YEAH!!!!!" screamed Rayman, happily!  
"Sssh, not so loud, Rayman!" said Murfy, who had switched to a whispering voice. "You'll wake up that Robo-Pirate that's sleeping next to us!"  
"Huh?--Oh, no!" It was too late. Rayman's cheering had awaken this Robo-Pirate! It awoke, got up, and pulled out its gun!  
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! went the shots from the pirate's gun. This one fired huge, black cannonballs that trailed towards Rayman. Rayman dodged these. Soon, he realized he could shoot energy back at the cannonballs to destroy them! He shot a silver ball of energy at the pirate's cannonball, and that destroyed the cannonball before it hit Rayman. But Rayman had to destroy the pirate, not just the pirate's cannonballs.  
BING! BING! BING! BING! BING! went the shots from Rayman's fist. He was able to defeat this Robo-Pirate.  
Then, Rayman glided back down to the first floor, from the upstairs balcony, and he quickly ran through the Exit doorway which was now open! Murfy flew there, too.  
"Ly the fairy, here we come!" Murfy yelled! 


	4. Chapter 2: The Stronghold continued

The Fairy Glades... (continued)  
  
Fear was flowing through Ly's body. She was infinitely worried...what if Globox had failed to rescue Rayman from the pirates' ship?...And even if Rayman had escaped, what if he'd get killed by pirates?... Would Rayman survive? Would he free her? These questions flooded the mind of Ly, who was tired of sitting in the pirates' dungeons, being trapped by a white forcefield, and forced to eat stale bread and Squab soup that the pirates gave her...If Rayman wasn't coming to free her, Ly would be feeling sad and hopeless right now, and she'd probably be spending an eternity at the bottom of the dungeons...but she knew that Rayman made good use of the powers he had, and that he tried his hardest to free everyone from the metal clutches of Razorbeard...  
And Ly hoped Rayman would succeed.  
  
Rayman was now behind the doorway that had been blocked by the blue lasers earlier. Murfy was still following Rayman. There was just one more hallway between him and the Prisoners' Dungeons. This hallway had three red moving lasers on the floor, which Rayman jumped over. No problem.  
Going past the lasers and through this doorway, Rayman set foot on a wooden bridge which was high over a very, very dark room. A deep, black pit was below the bridge...and Rayman was standing on a bridge which was high up above this pit. Across the bridge he was standing on, there was a doorway which seemed to lead outside the dark room. The bridge was broken. He was unable to get over the broken bridge and to the exit doorway on the other side. He tried gliding over this broken bridge, using his hair as a helicopter...but he could not glide that far. (He could only glide a bit-- not completely fly--with his helicopter hair.) But of course, he couldn't exit the dungeon area yet anyway. He still had to free Ly and the two Baby Globoxes, who were probably being held captive somewhere around here...  
Rayman fell down, through the black pit, below the bridge.  
When he fell down through the pit, he landed on a stone floor at the bottom of the pit. He saw that this was the dungeon area of the hideout, where several prison cells were. Rayman was standing outside the prison cells. Here, he looked around--and immediately noticed that in the center of this area, there was Ly, the fairy! Ly wasn't inside a prison cell, but instead there was a strong, white forcefield surrounding Ly, trapping her.  
  
"Look! There she is!" buzzed Murfy.  
"Ly!" yelled Rayman. "So this is where the Robo-Pirates have taken you!"  
"Please free me!" she cried. "Find the horrible machine that's creating this forcefield around me, and destroy that machine!"  
"We will, don't worry," said Murfy, grinning.  
However, before freeing Ly, Rayman noticed that on the walls around him, there were the doors to several prison cells--and the two Baby Globoxes were being held captive in one of these rooms! Rayman broke down the door of the room, with the energy from his fists, to free them. All the other caged rooms were empty (except for a few Yellow Lums, which Rayman picked up), and Globox was nowhere to be seen...just the two Baby Globoxes.  
"Yay, Rayman!" said the first Baby Globox.  
"Thanks for freeing us!" said the second one.  
"And now to free Ly," said Rayman, "by destroying the machine somewhere that's creating the forcefield around her..."  
Then Murfy said to Rayman, "C'mon, let's follow that red pipe that's ly-ing on the floor; it probably is connected to the machine!"  
They followed the pipe, which led into another hallway nearby, and into another room. The two Baby Globoxes came with them. Rayman, Murfy, and the two Baby Globoxes entered the "Machine Room", which had a stone grey floor. It was a lot like the basement of the pirates' hideout, which he had gone through earlier. At the bottom of this cave, there was a giant pool of green slime, and there was a grey, metal bridge so Rayman could cross over to the other side, where the giant machine stood in front of them at the end of this room!  
There were three white patches on different parts of this machine.  
"If we had a few gunpowder kegs with us, we could throw one at each of these three patches, to make them burst open," Murfy thought. "That might destroy the machine."  
"Hey," said the first Baby Globox. "I just remembered, there ARE a few gunpowder kegs lying around in that prison room that we had been trapped in..." The Baby Globox ran back to the caged room that he had previosuly been held captive in, and he got a gunpowder keg from that room. He then came back to where Rayman was, and handed the keg over to him. Rayman thought the keg was very heavy. He carried it over the metal bridge, and up to the machine, to destroy the first patch.  
Suddenly, part of the giant machine started firing a cannonball at Rayman! It headed towards him at a high speed, as he was trying to cross the bridge with his keg. Rayman could probably shoot some energy (from his fists) back at this cannonball to destroy it before it hit him. However, his hands were full, so he couldn't shoot energy from his fists. And he couldn't throw his keg at this cannonball, either, because he needed the keg to destroy the patch on the machine!  
"Help!" he yelled. "The cannonball is coming towards me, and I can't avoid it!"  
The cannonball inevitably collided into Rayman, and Rayman got hurt, fell over, and dropped his gunpowder keg.  
Luckily, Rayman recovered after a few seconds. "I guess I'll have to try again..." he thought. The Baby Globoxes handed Rayman a new gunpowder keg, which was in the prison cell they had been in. Rayman picked it up, and started crossing the bridge to the machine again. He knew that the machine would fire another cannonball at him, though, and he didn't know how to avoid it...maybe he just had to try harder.  
Murfy was watching Rayman's actions, and decided to give Rayman some advice! So he flew up to Rayman and whispered something in his ear.  
Then Rayman replied, "Of course! I should have thought of that!"  
When the cannonball was coming towards Rayman, he tossed his keg into the air, then shot balls of energy at the cannonball. This destroyed the cannonball, before it hit him. Then, the keg Rayman had tossed in the air came falling back down, and Rayman caught it. He carried it the rest of the way to the machine, and threw his keg at one of the white patches on the machine.  
A loud KA-BOOOOOM! echoed throughout the dark cave, as the gunpowder keg hit the patch on the machine.  
One of the Baby Globoxes then ran back to get another keg from one of the prison cells, and gave it to Rayman, who repeated the same process again--toss, shoot, catch, carry, throw. He hit the second patch on the machine, with his keg. Then, they did it one more time, to the third patch. Toss, shoot, catch, carry, throw. KA-BOOOOOM! All the patches had now been hit. The machine was now destroyed!!!!!  
"All right! YAHOOO!!!" Rayman screamed!  
Rayman then ran out of the cave (with Murfy and the two Baby Globoxes still following him), and back to the yard where Ly was. The white forcefield around her had now faded away.  
"Ly! Are you okay?" Rayman asked her.  
"Oh, Rayman at last," said Ly. She hadn't seen Rayman for a long time since he had been on the prison ship earlier. "I was afraid that Globox had failed to rescue you when you were on the prison ship..."  
"He gave me that Silver Lum," explained Rayman, "but we then got separated. I need to find him, and get rid of the pirates! But, to do that, I'll need all of my powers back!"  
"Yeah!" buzzed Murfy, grinning. "Can you give 'em back?"  
"I am too weak to give you back all your powers," sighed Ly. "The Robo-Pirates broke the primordial energy core of 1,000 Lums...and combining the energy has become very difficult."  
"Oh," sighed Rayman, hopelessly.  
"But, wait," continued Ly. "There might be another solution to stopping the pirates. Have you ever heard of Polokus?"  
"Ummm...no," Rayman admitted.  
"Well, then, I'll tell you the story of Polokus..." said Ly.  
"Okay," said Murfy, "but don't make it too long and boring!"  
"Well, he is the spirit of this world," began Ly. "Long, long ago, before this world was created, the universe was just a few small Yellow Lums floating around in space...but one day, the Lums focused their energy into thought, and gave birth to the magnifiecent spirit Polokus. Polokus then used his imagination to create this world we live in, and also everyone who lives in it, from the fairies to the Teensies to the Globoxes, and even you, Rayman. Polokus' powers are so immense that his smallest dreams can become reality. He could help you get rid of all the horrible Robo-Pirates that invaded this world...but unfortunately, after creating this world, Polokus has secluded himself from it for many years...but it is said that he could be awakened again and can come back to this world. If you reunite the four masks..."  
"The four masks?" Rayman said.  
"These masks," Ly told him, "are magical and very powerful. They are hidden in secret and mysterious places. Before Polokus had left this world, he had told us fairies that reuniting the four magic masks would be all it would take to bring him back. Find them, Rayman! It's our only hope!"  
"Right," said Murfy the fly. "We won't fail! Will we, Rayman?"  
"But be careful," said Ly. "Since Polokus didn't want to be called back by just anyone, he also created some fierce, tough guardians to protect the masks. They'll try to stop anyone who tries to get them..."  
"Eek! That sounds scary!" gasped Rayman.  
"...but Polokus gave each of these guards hidden weaknesses that only a true warrior could discover. You'll see when you get there..."  
"Oh," said Rayman. "That makes it sound less scary."  
"I'll help you get there," said Ly, "by giving you all the energy that I've gathered..." A special Silver Lum then appeared in her hands! It gave off a beautiful, bright silver glow, illuminating the very dark dungeon area. She handed this Silver Lum over to Rayman.  
"YAAAAAHOOOOO!!!!!" yelled Rayman, picking it up! Remember, Silver Lums enabled Rayman to gain a new power!  
"Good luck, Rayman!" Ly the fairy said. "Now, you can grab onto the round, purple flying targets that are in the air!"  
A purple, O-shaped target appeared over the broken wooden bridge that was at the top of the room.  
Ly then disappeared.  
Rayman was still standing at the bottom of the dungeon area, on the stone floor. There was a very tall ladder on the wall, leading back up to where the high-up broken bridge was. Rayman and the two Baby Globoxes climbed back up to where the broken bridge was. Now standing on the bridge above the room again, they saw the purple target which was now flying in mid-air, over the broken part of the bridge.  
Ly appeared in Rayman's mind and instructed, "If you shoot energy at these purple targets, it will create a magic rope that you can swing across!"  
So, Rayman shot a silver ball of energy at this target. Sure enough, a long, stringy, silver rope appeared! Rayman could use this to swing across the gap and over the broken bridge!  
"Whoa!" screamed Rayman, swinging across it!  
He swung over to the other side of the gap and then jumped off the rope, onto the other side of the broken bridge! On the other side of this bridge, there was the entrance to another hallway.  
However, the two Baby Globoxes didn't come with Rayman anymore. They turned around, ran out of the pirates' hideout back the way they had come from, and went home.  
"Hey! Where are you going?" said Murfy. "To the bathroom?"  
"No...we're just getting outta here! Sorry, we don't wanna come any further!" spoke the first son.  
"You're not coming with us anymore?" frowned Murfy, disappointedly.  
"No...these areas are too dangerous!" said the Baby Globoxes. "We're going home! We're worried we might get caught by Robo-Pirates again if we go any further. We don't want to risk that! But good luck in the rest of your quest, Rayman!" The two Baby Globoxes turned around and headed out of the hideout and went back home.  
"Wusses," muttered Murfy.  
On the other side of the broken bridge, there was the entrance to another hallway. This probably led out of the hideout. Rayman walked through it. There were a few Yellow Lums lying around here, too. He now had 40 from this area. At the far end of the room, there were two walls very close together, which Rayman climbed up by standing between them and then jumping between them repeatedly. At the top, there was a doorway leading to a very long, grassy tunnel, which seemed to lead outside the cave. It did.  
The sun was now starting to rise. Rayman could finally see light again. He ran outside excitedly, and found himself in the bottom of a deep canyon. The ground at the bottom of this canyon was grassy and had some flowers growing here. Some colourful butterflies were fluttering through the air. Birds were chirping. Even though the sun was shining brightly, there was also a lot of wind, which was being created by some air currents in the canyon. There were several of them.  
"You see these air currents, Rayman?" buzzed Murfy. "Activate your helicopter hair while standing in one of them, and you'll fly upwards!"  
So, Rayman did this. The wind in the air current blew Rayman up, up, up through the sky. It felt cold and windy. When he got to the top of it, he glided over to the next air current, which was higher up. Up, up, up, he flew, while in the second air current. From up there, he could reach the next air current. He kept flying up to the next air currents, which were higher up, until he reached the top of the canyon. Up here, floating in mid-air, there was another purple flying target, which Rayman swung across, to reach a high-up ledge on the cliff walls. On this ledge, there was a small, wooden shack, containing a closed portal inside, and nearby, another pirate cage.  
"Help! ...Help!" cried a teensie-tiny voice from inside this cage.  
"Don't worry!" said Rayman, "I'll free you!" He then shot two balls of energy at this pirate cage, and it broke open.  
"Thanks," said a Teensie, who came out of this cage. "I'll open up the entrance to the Marshlands! You might find more Yellow Lums there!"  
The Teensie then walked up to the closed portal. He did a magic dance, which activated the portal.  
Rayman heard Murfy saying, "I hope I've been very helpful to you in your trip so far. I'll talk to you again soon, when you need me! Bye for now! I have to go water my plants..."  
"That's what the Teensies always say, too, whenever they have to leave," said Rayman.  
Murfy then flew away.  
Rayman waved good-bye to Murfy, and then hopped into the swirly magic portal which was the gateway to the Marshlands. He now had a total of 55 out of 1,000 Yellow Lums. Would he ever get all 1,000?  
  
Meanwhile, back at the pirates' hideout, two of the pirate henchmen noticed that the two Baby Globoxes weren't there, anymore! Ly wasn't there, either!  
"Arrgh! That's two less slaves for us!" groaned the first henchman.  
  
"Well, soon we'll capture ALL of the Baby Globoxes!" screamed the second henchman. "BWA, HA, HA!"  
  
TO BE CONTINUED..... and don't worry, the rest of the story will be more original! I have thought of some new ideas to add that are more original; I just can't use them until I get to the later chapters in the story! 


	5. Chapter 3: The Ride

Chapter 3: The Marshlands  
  
"Yay!" yelled Rayman. "Now, I can get to the marshes!" More hope was coming to Rayman. So far, he was acquiring a lot of Yellow Lums, and he figured that there'd probably be a few here too.  
There was no time to lose--he had to get back more energy that was missing.  
The Marshlands of Rayman's world were very humid, green, swampy areas with some lily pads floating on the top of the muddy waters. Rayman was standing on a creaking wooden bridge, overlooking the swamp. He could hear birds squawking, frogs croaking, and mosquitoes humming wildly. The air was humid. There was also another "Beware of Piranhas!" signpost! Yes, lots of piranhas kept leaping out of the waters here too! Their jaws snapped furiously and hungrily!  
Rayman ran across the creaking bridge, and glided over to a lily pad and landed on it. There were some Yellow Lums lying around here, on top of the lily pads, which he didn't hesitate to pick up. He now had 60 Yellow Lums. From there, he glided over to a wooden pathway, around the base of an enormous oak tree! Rayman ran across the pathway to the big tree, wondering if there'd be anything of value there?  
Suddenly, two black ghostly chickens rose from the ground. Rayman thought they looked freaky--but bravely, he shot energy at them (from his powerful fists), and the ghostly chickens deteriorated in a matter of seconds.  
There was a hole inside the big tree--it turned out to be a hollow tree theat he could go into! Inside it, there was one Yellow Lum. It was the first one he had found in the marshes. Hanging in front of Rayman, on the walls inside the giant oak tree, was a wooden signpost, which read:  
  
"Warning! This is unknown territory.  
Tourism may be hazardous."  
  
Rayman was now getting more frightened. He wasn't sure he wanted to continue any further. Still, he remembered Ly telling him that the fate of the world was in his hands! So, gathering his courage, he proceeded further into the eerie, hollow tree.  
In a round, cave-like room inside the big tree (illuminated by green candlelight), there was a huge, round, green one-eyed monster, with skinny arms like dead tree branches. This monster was also wearing a tall, purple top hat and was holding a sceptre with a white skull on the end of it. He was sitting on a throne, and guarding the cave-like room.  
The monster (who had a very huge, round mouth) spoke, in a weird, low voice: "No! You can't enter here! Only those who know the name of this cave can pass. So, shoo! Come back when you know the name!"  
Rayman guessed: "Is it called "The Area of Very Ugly Stupid One-Eyed Monsters With Skinny Arms and Wearing Tall Purple Top Hats and Holding Sceptres with White Skulls on the ends?"  
"No!" shouted the Cave Guardian. The cave guardian kicked Rayman out of the hollow tree.  
Rayman had no choice but to turn back around and leave the giant tree until he knew the name of the cave that was inside the hollow tree.  
Rayman ran back outside to the swampy area with all the lily pads floating on top of it. He could see that there was a rope fence at the end of the swamp! Rayman glided over to there, climbed up it, and jumped over to the other side of it! On the other side, there was another wooden bridge. From there, Rayman could see a very wide, open stretch of swamp. How the heck would Rayman cross this swamp, without sinking? (He couldn't glide that far with his helicopter, AND there were not any purple flying hooks to grab onto!) Rayman sat on the wooden bridge, while thinking about it. Suddenly, he heard a muffled voice yelling, "Help! Help!" Rayman then noticed a pirate cage--one that was much larger than usual--floating in the murky waters. The yelling seemed to be coming from some creature that was trapped inside it! "This looks like a job for...Rayman!" Rayman yelled. Then, he rapidly blasted open the giant cage with two shots of energy! BAM! BAM! The cage burst open!  
Out came a skinny, pink snake. She had a red scarf wrapped around her neck. This was Sssuzy. She was the "sssister" of Sssam, who was one of Rayman's old friends.  
"How can I ever thank you?" Sssuzy the snake said, after being freed.  
  
"Oh, it was nothing," said Rayman, as if it was only a modest accomplishment. "Forget it, Sssuzy!"  
"Awwh, I forget how good it feels to be free," said Sssuzy. "SSSENSSSATIONAL!!!!!"  
"Tell me," interrupted Rayman, "do you know where to find the four masks of Polokus?"  
"Sssorry, Rayman," hissed Sssuzy, "I don't know what you're talking about. But, if you're wondering anything about where Globox is, I saw him get captured by two fierce Robo-Pirates! They took him somewhere out beyond these marshes. If you'd like, I can help you get over to the other side."  
"Gee, thanks!" agreed Rayman. "But how?"  
"You can grab onto my red scarf," said Sssuzy, "and I'll use it to pull you across the swamp, just like waterskiing. Come on, let's go!"  
"Hey, wait a minute," said Rayman. "Where is your brother Sssam? I heard that HE is usually the one who provides the waterskiing service here..."  
"Yesss, usually he does," said Sssuzy, "but right now he is sssick with the chicken poxsss. Ssso I'm taking over for him."  
So, Rayman grabbed on, and off they went, speeding through the murky waterrs, with Rayman being pulled along by Sssuzy, who was zooming along at top speed through the swamps. The background went by too quickly for Rayman to see it. And the ride was a very wet one, with Rayman's feet kicking up a lot of water. They passed through a long tunnel full of murk. There were some more ghostly chickens rising from the mud. "UGH!" said Rayman. Sssuzy steered him to the right, then to the left, to avoid these. They came out into an outdoor area. Rayman was losing his grip. He still tried to hold on tightly, as Sssuzy kept on going faster and faster and faster!  
"Slow down, Sssuzy!" Rayman yelled out loud. However, Sssuzy couldn't hear him very well. There were now zooming into another tunnel, with a giant axe attached to a chain on the ceiling, swinging back and forth overheard. Sssuzy sped up, to get past it, before it swung into them!  
"Phew!" gasped Rayman.  
There were many Yellow Lums scattered throughout the marsh, too. While waterskiing with Sssuzy, Rayman picked up a lot of these as they passed by them. Then, they came to a huge, brown rock. Sssuzy circled around it three times, giving Rayman a chance to pick up thirteen Yellow Lums that were around it! Wasn't Rayman lucky?  
Then, there was one more murky tunnel to speed through. They came outside to a swamp with many wooden posts sticking out of it! Sssuzy steered carefully around these posts, to avoid bumping into them. There were also some deadly, explosive bombs (with skull faces painted on them), floating in the swamp. They jumped over the rows of bombs. The two of them zoomed past some old shipwreck. There was a Robo-Pirate shooting at them, as they passed by. Luckily, Sssuzy steered away from this too. There were many more wooden posts and floating bombs up ahead, which Sssuzy had to keep steering around. It was pretty hard to avoid them! They now were probably zooming forward at 1,000 miles per hour!--so fast, that everything around Rayman was completely blurry! They still sped faster, faster, faster, FASTER!--it was impossible to slow down. Still, they kept on speeding faster--  
Then, Sssuzy suddenly screeched to a halt, just as they reached dry land, again. Rayman was glad. That trip had made him extremely dizzy. So, everything was still spinning around him.  
Rayman let go of Sssuzy's long scarf, and jumped off onto the dry land. As Rayman got off, Sssuzy hissed: "Rayman?"  
Rayman turned around and looked back at Sssuzy. She was very "sssad" to be leaving Rayman, now. "Ssso long," spoke Sssuzy. "Come and sssee me again, if you can..."  
"I promise I will," replied Rayman.  
"I will miss you, my friend..." sighed Sssuzy, slowly slithering away...  
"Me, too," said Rayman. "No time to lose." He had to get going! He proceeded further through the marshes. There was now solid ground up ahead...  
"Beware," Ly spoke in Rayman's mind, as Rayman walked further, "Razorbeard may try to launch a surprise attack on you, if he finds out you've got this far..."  
Rayman now had a total of 105 Yellow Lums. There was more hope now... 


	6. Chapter 3: The Ride continued

The Marshlands (continued)  
  
Meanwhile, on the Robo-Pirates' prison ship, in Admiral Razorbeard's private cabin...  
Razorbeard was busy with some paperwork, keeping track of all the slaves that the crew had captured.  
"Slaves now on board: 22,730..." he wrote on his parchment.  
Just then, one of his henchmen knocked at the door of Razorbeard's cabin.  
"Who dares disturb me?" yelled Razorbeard.  
"Your Horribleness..." said the henchman, "...Rayman has made it to the Marshlands!"  
"WHAT?!!!!!" yelled Razorbeard. He was very furious at the henchmen for not trying hard enough to stop Rayman. "You incompetent imbecile! AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!"  
The henchman looked ashamed.  
"I'll send out the warship and destroy him!" yelled Razorbeard. "He musn't get his grubby hands on the four masks!" (Yes, apparently, Razorbeard knew about Polokus and the masks, too!) He flew his ship over to the marshlands, where Rayman now was--but first, Razorbeard, who had one of the Yellow Lums in his hands, ate this Yellow Lum, so Rayman couldn't acquire it. So, now, there were only 999 Yellow Lums left in the world!  
  
Back in the marshlands, Rayman was walking further through the area. The sky was getting cloudy. There was a long river of muddy, piranha- infested water up ahead. He hopped onto a small, round platform that was floating in the water of the dense, dark swamps. He could use it as a raft to float to the other side of the muddy river.  
Suddenly, Rayman looked up, and saw the pirates' warship circling overhead, casting an enormous shadow which made the whole area look completely black! Rayman became very worried and frightened indeed.  
Then, Ly appeared in Rayman's mind and reminded him, "Be brave! Only you can save us!"  
As Rayman sailed across the river on the floating platform, the black- flagged warship overhead shot out one cannonball at Rayman. Quickly, Rayman shot back at this cannonball to destroy it, before it hit him. The platform that Rayman was on started sinking, by the time it got to a ledge across the swamp. Rayman hopped off it, and glided onto the ledge. The warship started sending out more cannonballs slowly.  
On this ledge, there was a tunnel entrance that Rayman could go through. Rayman took cover insdie this tunnel to avoid the warship's deadly cannonballs!  
Inside this tunnel, there was also a long rope ladder on the wall at the end. Rayman quickly climbed up it.  
"Quick, Rayman! You're our only hope!" said Ly, in his mind.  
This rope ladder led up to an opening in the cave, which Rayman jumped through. He came out in another outdoor area, and was now standing on a green ledge overlooking another swamp which was several feet down below him. The warship appeared in the sky, again.  
"Don't be discouraged, Rayman. You can do it!" said Ly.  
There was no way to get across this swamp yet, but there was a red button on a cliff wall across the swamp, which Rayman shot at. This button, when hit, caused a bridge to raise over the swampy area below, so Rayman glided down onto it and ran across it. The warship reacted by firing a cannonball at this criss-crossing bridge while Rayman was crossing it, and that caused the bridge to break! Slowly, the planks started collapsing underneath his feet.  
"Go! We know you can do it, Rayman!" said Ly.  
Rayman frantically hurried to the end of the bridge, just as the last plank was falling. He then set foot on the grassy ground, once again. On this side of the swamp, there was yet another tunnel. Rayman ran through it. Uh-oh. Another Robo-Pirate henchman was sleeping here. It awoke and pulled out its gun.  
"Attack!" said Ly. "Even Razorbeard is afraid of you!"  
Rayman fired energy from his fists at the Robo-Pirate. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, and the pirate was down.  
"Yeah!" yelled Rayman. He could now get past it.  
Out of this tunnel, there was another outdoor swamp, and here there was a metal cage on the ground. Rayman smashed it open to reveal a purple flying target that had been inside! The hook automatically flew over the swamp. Quickly, Rayman fired some energy at it, to magically create a rope that he could swing across.  
"Hurry or the pirates will win!" said Ly.  
When Rayman was swinging across this swamp, he jumped off the rope and landed on another platform that was floating in the swamp. Once again, he rode it across the muddy waters, like a raft. Although the warship wasn't here anymore, there were some more ghostly, black chickens rising from the murk! Of course, Rayman shot at them, too.  
On the ground across the swamp, there was another wooden unstable bridge that Rayman hurried across. The dreaded warship was coming again, and fired another cannonball at this bridge, too.  
"Go, Rayman!" yelled Ly.  
The planks were quickly collapsing. Rayman almost fell off the bridge and down into the deep, gooey swamp below!  
"Aaaaah!" he screamed in fright, sliding off the bridge. Quickly, he grabbed onto the edge of the bridge, before he fell. He hung from the edge of it, and managed to pull himself up, just as the warship was firing a giant missile that was heading rapidly towards him.  
Rayman had got back up onto the bridge. Finally, Rayman had run all the way to the end of this collapsing bridge--just in the nick of time!  
He came to some more grassy ground. The warship had disappeared, again. It must have given up trying to attack Rayman. However, there was a strong swarm of mosquitoes up ahead! Rayman hated mosquitoes; he had encountered them many times in the past, and he knew they sucked! The swarm of mosquitoes chased Rayman around the area, and Rayman yelled, "Next time, I'll be sure to bring mosquito repellent with me!" But luckily, he could just shoot some balls of energy from his fists, and that got rid of the pesky mosquitoes.  
He walked further. There was the entrance to a cave up ahead. It was blocked by a wooden gate! Rayman sat down to think about how to get this gate open... Suddenly, another mosquito--and this one was a GIANT mosquito!--flew by.  
"Oh, no, not another one!" said Rayman. He was about to swat it with his hands, and he almost did...but then, suddenly, the mosquito spoke up: "Hey, don't hurt me! I'm a friendly mosquito! My name is Bzzit. I can help you!"  
"Really?" asked Rayman. He had never met Bzzit, before. He wasn't sure if this mosquito was lying to him or not. What if this mosquito was really another enemy, just pretending to be nice? But Rayman trusted Bzzit. Bzzit said: "The pirates have blocked off that cave entrance with a gate..."  
"I know," said Rayman.  
"Well, I have a skeleton key," said Bzzit, "and you can use it to open that gate!" He handed it over to Rayman.  
"Thanks," said Rayman.  
Then, as he proceeded into the now-open cave, he saw that there was some muddy water inside the cave. He couldn't get over this mud.  
"Hop onto my back," suggested Bzzit, "and I'll give you a ride!"  
"All right," said Rayman, "but you better not be tricking me!" He hopped onto Bzzit's back. Bzzit flew off through the cave, over the muddy waters. He flew all the way to the other side of the cave. Then, they came outside to a huge pit in the ground. Rayman was still riding on Bzzit's back. Bzzit flew over this pit, and dropped Rayman off at the other side of the pit.  
"Thanks, again, Bzzit!" said Rayman.  
"Yer welcome!" said Bzzit. "Oh, and look what I found!" He handed five Yellow Lums over to Rayman. Rayman now had 130 Yellow Lums in total, out of 999.  
"Well, good-bye for now!" buzzed Bzzit. "I have to go and sting some Robo-Pirates..."  
Rayman walked further. There was the entrance to a hollow tree up ahead. He saw a peg-legged Robo-Pirate standing inside this hollow tree. It was wearing a white shirt with light blue stripes, and it stood on all four legs like a gorilla.  
"Arrrrrh!" yelled the pirate, running towards Rayman on all fours. Rayman tried shooting multiple balls of energy at it, but unfortuantely the pirate seemed invulnerable to it! Quickly, Rayman ran back to the gap in the ground that was before the hollow tree. Rayman stood very close to this gap. The Robo-Pirate followed Rayman there, charging very fast. Rayman jumped up as the pirate ran towards him. The pirate fell into the gap.  
"Yeah!" yelled Rayman. He had lured the pirate into the giant gap in the ground.  
He proceeded further into this hollow tree. Inside this tree, there was a long hallway. There were three swinging axes hanging from the ceiling by chains. They swung back and forth, back and forth, almost touching the floor below. There was also a blue laser forcefield at the end of this hallway. Luckily, there was also a red button right in front of Rayman, and when he hit it, it deactivated the blue lasers on the other side(when Rayman hit it). Quickly, Rayman ran over to the other end of this hallway, avoiding the swinging axes, and he made it to the other end! Just in time, too. The laser forcefield turned back on again, just as Rayman had passed through the end of the hallway. (Apparently, that red button had only deactivated the lasers for a few seconds.)  
Beyond the blue lasers, Rayman turned left. (He was still in the hallway inside the hollow tree.) There was another hallway that he had to run through. He did. There was a brown flap in the wall, which opened and spit out a giant barrel which rolled across the floor, chasing him down the hallway! The barrel would squish him if it rolled over him, so Rayman ran madly to the end of this second hallway, before the huge rolling barrel caught up to him. He had to run really fast!  
At the other end of this very long hallway, there was an opening leading out of the hollow tree, at last. Rayman ran out of the tree. He turned left. The giant barrel rolled out through the hole in the tree and fell down into a pit below the tree.  
There was a purple mushroom trampoline on the ground, near the base of the tree's trunk. Rayman jumped onto it and bounced high up into the air, to reach a branch sticking out of the tree. He saw that there was a cage hanging from another branch above that one. Rayman broke it open with his fists. Out came a Teensie.  
"Rayman," it spoke, "good news. I can show you the way to Polokus' first mask! Just follow me..."  
"At last!" said Rayman. The Teensie then waved its hands around and activated a magic portal that was in a hole in the giant tree. The portal glowed. Rayman hopped through it.  
Rayman had now retrieved a total of 155 out of 999 Yellow Lums. 


	7. Chapter 4: The Lost Island

Chapter 4: The Lost Island  
  
Rayman ended up in a dark void. He sneezed. He recognized this room; it was the Council Chamber of the Teensies. This was the same area where Rayman had accessed the portal leading to the Fairy Glades earlier! Although it was totally pitch-black in here, Rayman could see the small Teensie standing in front of him. The Teensie had a crown on its head.  
"Welcome again, Rayman!" it spoke.  
"So," said Rayman, "did you guys figure it out? Are you the real king?"  
"Uh...well, we're bit more organized now," replied the King of the Teensies...  
...or so he thought. Rayman loked behind him and saw that there were three other Teensies standing behind the Teensie King--and the second Teensie took the crown from the first Teensie.  
"From here," spoke the second Teensie, "we can let you enter another world..." Rayman then looked at the portals at the end of this room.  
"This portal," continued the second Teensie, walking one of the portals that was still closed, "is the gateway to the Lost Island! However, the trip will demand a lot of energy..."  
"How much?" asked Rayman.  
"The energy of 90 Yellow Lums," replied the Teensie.  
"I've got enough Lums," spoke Rayman, who had a total of 155 Yellow Lums. He showed 90 of his Lums to the Teensies.  
"Excellent!" The second Teensie took the energy from these Lums and used it to open up the doorway at the end of the room.  
"Prepare to discover a new world..." announced the second Teensie.  
Rayman slowly approached the strange energy portal, which was now open. Rayman stopped and stared at it for a few seconds. It was blue and swirly, and shone brightly in the dark chamber. Strange energy noises were coming from it. Rayman, a bit nervous, looked back. This could lead to a very treacherous area...  
"Go in! Go in!" the Teensies insisted.  
So Rayman faced this odd-looking portal again, and finally hopped in through it. The portal swirled around, making Rayman all dizzy as it transported him into a new world, somewhere far, far away...  
  
When Rayman finally got sucked out of the portal, he landed on the sandy coast of an island area. Rayman knew a lot of islands that were very sunny and peaceful--but THIS unfamiliar island was very cloudy, unpleasant, and the sky was very dark. It had a sort of haunted feel. Rayman shivered. The island was also very rocky. Rayman could hear seagulls squawking in the distance. Tiny, green crabs with sharp pinchers crawled around across the wet sand. There was one palm tree nearby, its leaves swaying in the cold gusty wind of this nearly-empty, seemingly-abandoned island.  
This was the Lost Island.  
There was a sign in fron of him, which he read. It said, in black letters:  
  
THE SANCTUARY OF WATER AND ICE  
  
"The Sanctuary of Water and Ice...that must be the part of the island that I'm on right now," thought Rayman. "Mmm...I wonder if I'll be able to find one of Polokus' masks here?"  
He walked across the coast, leaving footprints in the wet sand. Only Rayman could save the world...but he might need a little bit of help from his friends. Rayman saw that there was a small wooden shack that had been built on this sandy coast. He walked up to it, to see if there was anyone living here who could give him some information about this area...  
But as he approached this shack, three Robo-Pirates came out of it!  
*play scary music in your head*  
"Arrrrrgh!" they yelled, pulling out their powerful guns, each firing three small, red bursts of energy. Rayman dodged these. He managed to get two of the pirates down. Now there was just one more. Before Rayman could shoot his silver balls of energy at the tough Robo-Pirate, it pulled out a giant drill! The drill made a loud, discordant noise as the pirate quickly made a hole in the ground, went down through this hole, and drilled its way to another part of the beach--behind Rayman. It did this very quickly. Then, it started firing rapid bursts of energy from its gun, again. Quickly, Rayman shot back at the pesky pirate. After the pirate got hit by Rayman's shots, it drilled another hole in the ground, dug another underground tunnel, and popped up on another part of the beach, further away from Rayman. From here, the pirate started firing again. Rayman shot back, again. The same process kept repeating several times, until the Robo- Pirate was finally defeated!  
Rayman walked further, in search of anything valuable on this spooky, empty island. He came across some grey, rocky ledges leading up to a small cave in the cliff wall nearby. Rayman ran up to there. He climbed up the rocky ledges leading into the cavern. Inside the cavern, Rayman saw there was a huge pool of water! Rayman held his breath, and dove underwater, just to see if there were any Yellow Lums down there. There was an underwater tunnel that he could swim through, and it seemed very long! Would Rayman be able to hold his breath long enough to get through this underwater tunnel? Luckily, there were lots of Blue Lums down here. The magical Blue Lums contained air, and Rayman could grab them if he was low on oxygen while underwater; they'd enable him to breathe underwater longer.  
  
Thanks to the Blue Lums that were scattered throughout the underwater tunnel, he reached the end of the tunnel, at last. He swam up to the surface of the water. He was now in a small room with several crates lying around on the cave floor. He got out of the water and pulled himself up to the ledge where all the crates were lying around. Among these crates, there was a tiny pirate cage on the ground! Rayman shot at it, twice. It broke open! Out came two Yellow Lums! He now had 157 Yellow Lums!  
After picking them up, Rayman saw that there was a rope ladder on the wall of the cave. Rayman climbed up the rope ladder. All the top of this ladder, he could reach an opening in the ceiling which led outside to another beach area.  
Here, on this cloudy, windy, dark, overcast beach, Rayman saw two small, triangular-shaped bases on the ground, one golden and one blue. Rayman wondered what they were for. There was also a huge, turquoise temple behind the two bases. The two front temple doors had a picture engraved on them, which looked like a picture of one of Polokus' masks! Rayman thought, "I've got to get in there! Will I be able to open this door?"  
  
"No! You won't!" yelled a Robo-Pirate, suddenly popping out of the sand!  
"Oh, leave me alone, you stupid pirate!" yelled Rayman angrily. Rayman shot at this Robo-Pirate, and defeated it.  
"Phew," gasped Rayman. He still remained clueless about what the two bases were for, and how to open the the temple doors...he was so close to where Polokus' first mask probably was, and he couldn't figure out how to open the temple doors that led there...it was a puzzling situation.  
Off to the left, there was another small, wooden shack. Rayman walked up to it, but then he noticed that the door was locked tightly. Again, Rayman was clueless about how to get the door open. He wanted to get into the shack and see what was inside. What if there were some Yellow Lums, or something else in this shack which could help him get further?  
"Aaaaaah!" Rayman yelled! "So many closed doors! I'm gonna go crazy!!!!!" He then noticed a second wooden shack, off to the right! He said, "Let me guess, this shack will have a door that's locked, too?" He ran up to this other shack, hoping that its door would be unlocked. It wasn't, either. Rayman groaned, feeling totally doomed. He was stuck. This was really annoying him...  
However, he then spotted a gunpowder keg on the porch, on the side of the second shack! Rayman ran up the stairs that led up to the porch, where the keg was sitting. He picked it up and trudged back down the steps and to the front doorway of the shack, carrying the keg in his hands. Then, he blew down the door--KA-BLAMM!!!!!--with the keg. The door exploded! Now, Rayman could at least get inside the first shack. (By the way, on the wall outside the shack, where the gunpowder keg had been, there was also a flap that could spit out more kegs. Rayman would go back and get another keg later, to blow down the door of the other shack. But there was still the conundrum of the turquoise temple doors...how would he get THOSE doors open? They looked too strong to be blown down with just a gunpowder keg. And what were the triangular bases on the ground outside for?)  
Inside this shack, there were wooden walls and a small room with a shiny, golden sphere-like object (NOT a Lum!). Then, Murfy suddenly flew in, and buzzed: "Hi again, Rayman! You were looking puzzled earlier about how to open the temple doors. Well, here's a hint. This object you see in front of you right now, Rayman, is a golden Magic Sphere! You can pick up Magic Spheres and place them on top of bases that are the same colour, and then the big temple doors will open!"  
Rayman was finally beginning to see what he was supposed to do! He could take this golden sphere outside to where the triangular bases were, and put this sphere on top of the golden base. The other shack probably had a blue Magic Sphere inside, which would go on the other base (the blue one). Then the temple doors would open!  
"It's a good thing I'm not colour blind," Rayman said. He then picked up the golden sphere, carried it outside, and slowly placed it onto the base that was golden. The sphere shone brightly in the darkness of the cloudy beach.  
It was starting to rain. Quickly, Rayman went to get another gunpowder keg from the wooden shack on the right. He carried it over to the shack on the left, and blew the door down. KA-BLAMM!!!!!  
He then ran inside this shack, and sure enough, there was the blue Magic Sphere that he needed! He grabbed it and carried it outside. The rain was now starting to pour harder. He then placed the blue sphere on the blue base. It, too, shone brightly in the darkness. Both spheres were now on both the bases, so this caused the temple doors to open!  
Murfy flew back to Rayman and buzzed, "Congratulations on opening the temple doors! Now we'd better hurry through them before we get drenched in this heavy rain!"  
So, Rayman and Murfy both quickly dashed through the temple entrance. Inside these empty, abandoned temples, there was a long hallway. It still felt very cold even inside them and there wasn't any light. There were, however, plenty of Yellow Lums scattered everywhere, in the room of the temple, which made Rayman yell, "Yippie!" Rayman grabbed them all. He now had 170! There was also a black doorway in the back of the large room, which seemed to lead into another hallway...so Rayman and Murfy hurried through it.  
"This could be where Polokus' first mask is hidden away..." buzzed Murfy. "But I don't even want to think about what horrible beast could be guarding it...maybe an ice dragon, or a giant tarantula, or a yeti..." Murfy shivered. It could have been because he was frightened, or maybe because he was cold.  
They ended up in a long hallway which resembled the inside of an icy cavern tunnel. The walls and the ceiling were an icy blue colour. It was chilly in here and felt like the inside of a freezer. Rayman looked and saw that in this ice hallway, there was a very lengthy, turquoise slide which sloped steeply downwards. It looked as if Rayman would have to slide down it. Right now, he was standing at the top of this icy slide.  
"You see this slope?" Murfy buzzed. "It's obviously very slippery! Slide with caution! You'll lose control if you turn sideways while sliding, and also you can't use your helicopter hair while sliding."  
Then Murfy flew away, leaving Rayman to slide down the long, treacherous slide. Would he find the first mask at the bottom? There was only one way to find out...Rayman hopped aown and slid down it.  
"Who-o-o-o-oaaaaa!" screamed Rayman! He was going down really fast! Some wind was blowing in his face as he was riding the icy slide.  
There were also many of those bright Yellow Lums to pick up on the way down. Rayman made sure he didn't miss any of them!  
It was indeed a long, wild ride. Rayman kept speeding up, sliding faster and faster as he slid down this blue slide. At the bottom, Rayman finally got off the slide, and was now in another, very huge icy room with a giant gap of frozen water in the center. Rayman looked across the gap, and saw on the other side of this gap, a giant, turquoise, triangular- headed monster with very huge fists!  
"Grrrrr...I am AXEL," it roared, "Guardian of the Sanctuary of Water and Ice! And if you're trying to get the first of Polokus' masks, you must fight me for it!"  
"I knew this was coming..." frowned Rayman. Great fear was building up in Rayman, and he felt uncertain if he could defeat this extremely dangerous-looking beast.  
Then Ly appeared in Rayman's mind and gave him some useful advice: "Follow the purple flying targets to get over the gap of frozen water, and shoot the stallactite on the other side."  
There were very many flying targets over the great gap. Rayman shot energy at one of them, to create a rope so he could swing across to the next target. He jumped off the first one and quickly shot at the second one before he fell. This made another rope appear, so he could swing over to the third target. There were two more flying targets after that. Axel started tossing some giant, icy balls towards Rayman, in an attempt to knock him off the rope. Rayman almost got hit by one, but he quickly swung to the left to avoid it. When Rayman got to the fifth target, he could now reach the stallactite above Axel's head, and he shot at it. This caused the stallactite to crack, break from the ceiling, and fall onto Axel's head, knocking him out.  
"OWCH, that hurts badly!" growled Axel, lying on the ground in defeat!  
"Yeah!" yelled Rayman. He then jumped off the stringy rope and glided over to the other side of the gap, where Axel was lying. From here, he went through a tunnel, which led out of the icy cave and to another dark, outdoor area! This small area had grassy ground and was surrounded by turquoise cliff walls. On the ground, there was a strange, brown box. Rayman slowly approached it and shot energy from his fists at it. The box then opened...slowly, some light came out of it...and then, out came a light blue mask. It was one of Polokus' masks!  
IT WAS ONE OF POLOKUS' MASKS!  
Rayman picked it up excitedly, knowing that he was now one step closer to awakening Polokus and completely eliminating the Robo-Pirate army. When he picked up this mask, he suddenly got automatically teleported to somewhere different!  
"HEY! WHOA! Where are we going...?" wondered Rayman in confusion. Everything around him had disappeared!  
As it turned out, Rayman got teleported to a mysterious, new world up in the sky. This place looked like a grassy, night-time lake area up high in the sky. The moon shone brightly. There was also a small, brown pedestal on the ground in the center of this area, and on it, Polokus was sitting!  
Rayman was still holding his mask he had just found. He walked up to Polokus' pedestal. Polokus looked like a round, green creature with long skinny arms.  
"Welcome!" he said in a tired voice. "I am Polokus, the spirit of this world!"  
"I know you," replied Rayman. "Ly told me about you."  
"I see that you have found the first of my four masks!"  
"That's right," replied Rayman, holding it up.  
"For now," said Polokus, "I'm always far away, and normally can only speak in dreams...but if you bring me the last three masks, I will completely awaken, and help you to fight the Robo-Pirates." He took the mask that Rayman had found, and put it on the side of the pedestal he was sitting on.  
Then, Polokus waved his hands around, creating a magic energy portal.  
  
"This portal will take you back to the earth," Polokus told Rayman. "Be strong, our world's destiny is in your hands..."  
Rayman fell through the portal.  
He had just given the first mask to Polokus.  
Also, the number of Yellow Lums Rayman had in total so far was only 205 out of 999. This would be a very long journey... 


	8. Chapter 5: The Strong Guy

Chapter 5: The Menhir Hills  
  
The portal had taken Rayman back to earth. To be precise, it teleported him to the Menhir Hills, which was a very wide-open grassy valley with lots of hills and, of course, menhirs (huge stones).  
The sun was starting to rise again, now. Rayman ran up one of the grassy hills--and saw one of his old friends, Clark, standing there! Clark was a large, tough, muscle-built creature--probably capable of defeating large masses of Robo-Pirates easily. Rayman was lucky to have him as a friend! And he was lucky to find Clark here at this time!  
"Hi, Clark," said Rayman.  
"Hey, little buddy," spoke Clark. "Hey, follow me and I'll show you the way to another part of this area. There's another pirate hideout there. We've gotta put at stop to them!"  
"They've built ANOTHER hideout?" gasped Rayman. "Gee, those metal pirates are taking over the whole land!"  
However, Rayman was glad that the strong, muscular Clark was with him and could do something about it. Although Clark was somewhat clumsy, his strength came in handy very often. With Rayman and Clark working together, they could probably clear out the pirates' hideout twice as fast!  
Clark then ran through the hills, across a sturdy, wooden bridge, and through another large outdoor area. Rayman didn't see any Yellow Lums here, though. The pirates' second hideout was up ahead, in plain view. Clark had got there ahead of Rayman and was already in the hideout. Rayman, who was still outside, could hear a lot of loud noises coming from inside, which sounded like a bunch of robots being thrown around and smashed! Rayman went inside, too. There was a signpost on the wall outside the hideout which read:  
  
"Robo-Pirate military academy. Please respect the need for total silence for the cadets' concentration."  
  
Rayman entered the wooden building. He knew that Clark was in there.  
  
He entered a dark room of the hideout, where there were a lot of robot body parts and bolts lying around on the floor. These were obviously remains of defeated Robo-Pirates. It was very quiet in here, now that all the Robo-Pirates weren't there anymore. Clark was sitting in the corner of the room, against a wooden wall, looking tired.  
"Clark!" shouted Rayman happily, walking up to him. "So you wiped out all these Robo-Pirates! ...Only 200 pirates against you? They didn't stand a chance!"  
"H..hello, little buddy," said Clark slowly. He was looking rather tired and sick.  
"What's the matter, Clark?" asked Rayman, becoming worried. "You're not dying, are you?"  
"Uh...no, I don't think so..." said Clark. "I think I've just swallowed something bad for me."  
"Oh, no," groaned Rayman, wondering what to do. "Too bad Otto the Teensie doctor hasn't finished building his medical clinic in Clearleaf Forest yet, because then we could take you there!"  
"But for now, maybe I could get better if I have some life potion," said Clark.  
"Awwh, come on! You seriously expect me to find some?" groaned Rayman.  
"I hear there's some that's hidden near the entrance of the Marshlands, in a place called the Cave of Bad Dreams."  
Rayman then remembered the strange, one-eyed, green monster with the top hat and the skull sceptre, who was guarding the hollow oak tree back in the marshes and had previously forbidden Rayman's entry.  
"The Cave of Bad Dreams!" shouted Rayman excitedly. "That's it! That's the password I need to enter the cave in the marshes! But how did you know that's the password, Clark?"  
"Uh...Polokus told me," replied Clark slowly. "But beware, that's also the cave where Polokus hid away all his nightmares and negative thoughts that had created scary creatures. Polokus wasn't able to control all of his creations. You'll have to go through a lot of creepy rooms before finding the elixir that's hidden in that cave. Anyway, don't forget the name of that place--the Cave of Bad Dreams--or else the guardian won't let you pass!"  
"The Cave of Bad Dreams," Rayman repeated again. "I won't forget. Hang in there, I'll go to the marshes and bring back the elixir."  
"Umm...thanks, little buddy," mumbled Clark, tiredly. Then, he fainted.  
Rayman turned around and went back outside to the front yard of the hideout.  
"It will be a long walk back to the marshes..." frowned Rayman, walking back. His feet were getting tired from walking such long distances for hours and hours.  
However, as luck might have it, he saw Bzzit flying by, who buzzed: "Hey, Rayman, I hear that you need to get back to the marshes! Hop on my back and I'll take you back there!"  
"Gee, thanks, Bzzit!" replied Rayman as he hopped onto the giant mosquito's back and they flew off to the Cave Guardian's hollow tree in the marshlands... 


	9. Chapter 6: The Nightmares

Chapter 6: The Cave of Bad Dreams  
  
Bzzit dropped Rayman off, back at the Marshlands. Then Rayman went back over to the path that led to the giant hollow oak tree. Since he now knew the name of the cave-like room inside the tree, he could be granted access into it.  
He approached Jano, the creepy cave guardian, the round one-eyed monster, who looked like an evil look-alike of Polokus, and who guarded the cave where Polokus had hidden away all his nightmares.  
Jano, the Cave Guardian, spoke: "I can read your mind. You know the name of this cave...but I'm still reluctant to let you enter my cave because you called me "stupid and ugly" last time..."  
"Oh, c'mon, you have to let everyone in who knows the password," protested Rayman.  
"But I don't like you!" roared Jano. As he yelled, his mouth opened really wide, and Rayman could see his dirty green teeth. Also, the ground shook.  
"Well, I won't like you either, if you don't let me enter the cave already!" said Rayman. "And...I'm sorry for calling you stupid and ugly last time..." --though really, he still thought the Cave Guardian was ugly.  
  
Jano sighed. Rayman knew the password to the caves, and so Jano had to allow him in. He spoke: "All right. I guess you are now ready to enter the Cave of Bad Dreams. But, before you come in, I must tell you something..."  
"Oh?"  
"I have hidden a precious treasure inside...you may keep it for yourself if you beat me to it. I'll give you a head start, but don't waste any time, because if I catch you, I'll show you no mercy..."  
He then began to wave his magic sceptre around, to teleport Rayman to the inside of the Cave of Bad Dreams. Rayman stared at the sceptre which had a skull face on the end of it. The eyes of the skull started glowing a bright evil red colour... Rayman was slightly scared... Then Rayman got teleported...  
  
*****  
  
*if possible, download the Cave of Bad Dreams music from another website and play it while reading this*  
...into a strange, new room with dark purple cave walls. Rayman was standing on a bridge that was made out of a long, white skeleton bone. Thick, purple smoke was floating through the cave, and white, ghostly figures kept rising from the purple slime below..... It was a very dark, creepy, cold atmosphere.  
Rayman proceeded down the bone bridge, still feeling extremely frightened. His bravery was disappearing. Slowly, he put one foot in front of the other, and he walked to the end of the bone bridge. He knew that a lot of creepy things would happen on his way through the rest of the cave. He shivered with great fear.  
"The treasure he said was hidden at the end of this cave," Rayman thought, "that must be the elixir that Clark needs!"  
He walked all the way to the end of the bone bridge and looked down. Floating around in the purple, slimy water below was a platform, shaped like a skull. Rayman glided onto it, landed on it, and stood on top of it. Then three more platforms, also skull-shaped, rose from the water in front of him. He hopped across them, using them as stepping stones to get across part of the slimy water. They felt hard and bony, and cracked a bit as he stepped on them.  
While standing on the fourth skull-shaped platform, Rayman could see a ladder on the wall on the right, made of bones. He jumped off the skull platform he was standing on, grabbed onto the bone ladder, and climbed up it. He climbed to the left, and at the end of the ladder, he glided down to an area where there were two more skull-shaped stepping stones floating in the purple slime. He hopped across them, too.  
The rest of the path through the cave was an arduous gauntlet--very long, spooky, and treacherous. There were many more platforms, bones, and some hands that popped out from holes in the walls and tried to grab Rayman! If only there was an easier way for Rayman to get an elixir... He really hated this horrible place... The purple smoke filling the cave made it slightly difficult for Rayman to see where he was going...and Rayman was shivering with cold too. Could it get any creepier?...  
Eventually, he entered another room of the cave, where he was standing on a high ledge overlooking a large room full of slimy, purple water. There was some ground down below, on the other side. Rayman glided down to there. There was a golden Magic Base lying on the cave ground here- -but no golden sphere to go on it! And he couldn't even see a door that it might open! So here Rayman was--stuck in a room with a magic base but no magic sphere in sight. What could he do?  
Then, suddenly, the whole cave started shaking. Rayman felt the vibrations underneath his feet. It was an earthquake!!!!! Several stallactites started to fall from the ceiling at a high velocity. Rayman almost got hit on the head by a falling stallactite! He dodged them. Rayman was stuck on a small area of ground surrounded by purple slimy water, and there wasn't a lot of room to run around, so it was fairly difficult to dodge them. The stallactites kept on falling for at least a whole minute...and then they stopped.  
"Phew," said Rayman.  
However, some ghostly chickens then raised from the ground! They all swarmed towards Rayman, who hated ghostly chickens! With his mighty fist, he cast a bunch of silver energy balls in their direction, which hit them. He got rid of them as quickly as possible. Then, a pair of small round one- eyed creatures then popped out of the cold ground. They looked like miniature versions of Jano, the one-eyed Cave Guardian! They had branch arms, but no top hats. They also had very huge mouths--and they started spitting bright, orange fireballs! Rayman quickly shot some balls of energy from his fist at these small pests, seeing if this would defeat them. Luckily, it did. The small monsters fell back and disappeared--but then, more of them emerged from underground! They hopped towards Rayman, and they spat fireballs at Rayman again.  
"How long will this go on?" wondered Rayman, as he shot more of these creatures.  
When he defeated the last one, it disappeared...but then, suddenly, another, much bigger one-eyed monster emerged. It wasn't Jano--instead, this monster had a big red eye, was dark black in colour, and did not have a top hat either.  
"Oh, no, not ANOTHER one!" frowned Rayman.  
"Grr...my name is Adam," it spoke.  
"Well, Adam, you ain't gonna defeat me!" said Rayman. He shot a silver ball of energy at the monster named Adam. Then Rayman kept on firing several more balls of energy at him, to knock him into the purple slime below. Before Adam fell into the purple slime, he dropped a golden Magic Sphere!  
"Wow!" yelled Rayman! His yelling echoed loudly through the cold, nearly-empty cave. He quickly placed the sphere on top of the small, triangular-shaped golden base. Then, suddenly, the magic base started magically rising up, out of the ground... revealing a tiny, round hole that was underneath the base. The Magic Base floated in mid-air, allowing Rayman to go down through the hole, which the base had previously been blocking.  
When Rayman dropped down through this tiny hole, he landed in a huge, round room. There were a whole bunch of flying eels that were made up of black, fuzzy segments. They flew closer to him, threatening to eliminate him. Quickly, Rayman shot silver energy balls at them, causing them to collapse. Then, at the far end of this room, Rayman saw a closed doorway, which was shaped like the Cave Guardian's mouth, and on the ground in front of it, there were two more magic bases, one purple and one blue. Rayman figured that he would have to locate two similar-coloured magic spheres, probably in other rooms of the cave, and bring them here.  
Off to the left, there was another hallway, which Rayman walked through. The hallway split into two separate corridors. Rayman took the one on the left. It led to a room where there was a blue Magic Sphere. Rayman picked it up, carried it back to the room with the Magic Bases, and placed it on top of a base. Then he ran back through the hallway where it split into two corridors, but this time he took the one on the right. This probably led to the purple Magic Sphere!  
But first, he had to navigate a tunnel full of purple slime. At the beginning of this slime tunnel, there was a dead hand sticking out of the slime, and it was holding a skull-shaped platform, which Rayman hopped onto and stood on. Then, while Rayman was standing on it, the hand suddenly began to rise up higher! When it rose, this allowed Rayman could reach a high-up ledge nearby. From this ledge, he saw a long row of purple flying targets floating in front of him, above the slime up ahead. Rayman shot at the first one, grabbed onto the rope that appeared, and swung from it, and from there, grabbed onto another flying target, then the next one... Beyond the last flying target, there were two walls that kept opening and closing. When Rayman swung from the last flying target and jumped off to ground on the other side, he timed it so that he landed on the other side when the two walls were open. When he landed on the path on the other side, he turned a sharp right corner. From here, the rest of the tunnel was a repetitive gauntlet of more skull-shaped platforms that were floating in the slime, more small ledges that were sticking out of the slime, and even more flying eels, then one more dead hand holding a skull-shaped platform, which Rayman hopped onto. It rose up higher, while Rayman was still standing on it, and from here, he could reach one more ledge, and on here, there was...  
...the purple Magic Sphere!  
"I made it!" yelled Rayman. Oops. He yelled so loudly that it caused the cave to shake, and some stallactites fell from the ceiling.  
"Owch!" yelled Rayman as one of them landed on his head.  
Apparently, this slime tunnel had led around in a circle, and the ledge that Rayman was now standing on was high-up above the doorway that he had gone through to enter this room! He tossed the purple Magic Sphere down to where that doorway was below, then glided down, picked it up again, and carried the sphere back to the room with the two bases. He placed the purple sphere on top of the second base.  
...now, both bases were on top of both spheres. But the door STILL wouldn't open! Why not?  
Then Rayman realized, "Oops, I put the purple sphere on the blue base, and the blue sphere on the purple base!" He blushed in embarrassment. He took the spheres off the bases, and placed them back on the correct coloured bases. And he watched as the door slowly opened. A lot of green smoke came billowing out of the doorway, and when the smoke cleared, Rayman walked through the doorway... 


	10. Chapter 6: The Nightmares continued

Chapter 6: The Cave of Bad Dreams  
  
Bzzit dropped Rayman off, back at the Marshlands. Then Rayman went back over to the path that led to the giant hollow oak tree. Since he now knew the name of the cave-like room inside the tree, he could be granted access into it.  
He approached the creepy cave guardian, the round one-eyed monster with the white skull sceptre, who looked like an evil look-alike of Polokus, and guarded the cave where Polokus had hidden away all his nightmares.  
The Cave Guardian spoke: "I can read your mind. You know the name of this cave...but I'm still reluctant to let you enter my cave because you called me "stupid and ugly" last time..."  
"Oh, c'mon, you have to let everyone in who knows the password," protested Rayman.  
"But I don't like you!" roared the Cave Guardian. As he yelled, his mouth opened really wide, and Rayman could see his dirty green teeth. Also, the ground shook.  
"Well, I won't like you either, if you don't let me enter the cave already!" said Rayman. "And...I'm sorry for calling you stupid and ugly last time..." --though really, he still thought the Cave Guardian was ugly.  
  
The Cave Guardian sighed. Rayman knew the password to the caves, and so the Cave Guardian had to allow him in. He spoke: "All right. I guess you are now ready to enter the Cave of Bad Dreams. But, before you come in, I must tell you something..."  
"Oh?"  
"I have hidden a precious treasure inside...you may keep it for yourself if you beat me to it. I'll give you a head start, but don't waste any time, because if I catch you, I'll show you no mercy..."  
He then began to wave his magic sceptre around, to teleport Rayman to the inside of the Cave of Bad Dreams. Rayman stared at the sceptre which had a skull face on the end of it. The eyes of the skull started glowing a bright evil red colour... Rayman was slightly scared... Then Rayman got teleported...  
  
*****  
  
*if possible, download the Cave of Bad Dreams music from another website and play it while reading this*  
...into a strange, new room with dark purple cave walls. Rayman was standing on a bridge that was made out of a long, white skeleton bone. Thick, purple smoke was floating through the cave, and white, ghostly figures kept rising from the purple slime below..... It was a very dark, creepy, cold atmosphere.  
Rayman proceeded down the bone bridge, still feeling extremely frightened. His bravery was disappearing. Slowly, he put one foot in front of the other, and he walked to the end of the bone bridge. He knew that a lot of creepy things would happen on his way through the rest of the cave. He shivered with great fear.  
"The treasure he said was hidden at the end of this cave," Rayman thought, "that must be the elixir that Clark needs!"  
He walked all the way to the end of the bone bridge and looked down. Floating around in the purple, slimy water below was a platform, shaped like a skull. Rayman glided onto it, landed on it, and stood on top of it. Then three more platforms, also skull-shaped, rose from the water in front of him. He hopped across them, using them as stepping stones to get across part of the slimy water. They felt hard and bony, and cracked a bit as he stepped on them.  
While standing on the fourth skull-shaped platform, Rayman could see a ladder on the wall on the right, made of bones. He jumped off the skull platform he was standing on, grabbed onto the bone ladder, and climbed up it. He climbed to the left, and at the end of the ladder, he glided down to an area where there were two more skull-shaped stepping stones floating in the purple slime. He hopped across them, too.  
The rest of the path through the cave was an arduous gauntlet--very long, spooky, and treacherous. There were many more platforms, bones, and some hands that popped out from holes in the walls and tried to grab Rayman! If only there was an easier way for Rayman to get an elixir... He really hated this horrible place... The purple smoke filling the cave made it slightly difficult for Rayman to see where he was going...and Rayman was shivering with cold too. Could it get any creepier?...  
Eventually, he entered another room of the cave, where he was standing on a high ledge overlooking a large room full of slimy, purple water. There was some ground down below, on the other side. Rayman glided down to there. There was a golden Magic Base lying on the cave ground here- -but no golden sphere to go on it! And he couldn't even see a door that it might open! So here Rayman was--stuck in a room with a magic base but no magic sphere in sight. What could he do?  
Then, suddenly, the whole cave started shaking. Rayman felt the vibrations underneath his feet. It was an earthquake!!!!! Several stallactites started to fall from the ceiling at a high velocity. Rayman almost got hit on the head by a falling stallactite! He dodged them. Rayman was stuck on a small area of ground surrounded by purple slimy water, and there wasn't a lot of room to run around, so it was fairly difficult to dodge them. The stallactites kept on falling for at least a whole minute...and then they stopped.  
"Phew," said Rayman.  
However, some ghostly chickens then raised from the ground! They all swarmed towards Rayman, who hated ghostly chickens! With his mighty fist, he cast a bunch of silver energy balls in their direction, which hit them. He got rid of them as quickly as possible. Then, a pair of small round one- eyed creatures then popped out of the cold ground. They looked like miniature versions of the one-eyed Cave Guardian! They had branch arms, but no top hats. They also had very huge mouths--and they started spitting bright, orange fireballs! Rayman quickly shot some balls of energy from his fist at these small pests, seeing if this would defeat them. Luckily, it did. The small monsters fell back and disappeared--but then, more of them emerged from underground! They hopped towards Rayman, and they spat fireballs at Rayman again.  
"How long will this go on?" wondered Rayman, as he shot more of these creatures.  
When he defeated the last one, it disappeared...but then, suddenly, another, much huger one-eyed monster emerged. This one had a big red eye, was dark brown in colour, and did not have a top hat either.  
"Oh, no, not ANOTHER one!" frowned Rayman.  
"Grr...my name is Adam," it spoke.  
"Well, Adam, you ain't gonna defeat me!" said Rayman. He shot a silver ball of energy at the monster named Adam. Then Rayman kept on firing several more balls of energy at him, to knock him into the purple slime below. Before Adam fell into the purple slime, he dropped a golden Magic Sphere!  
"Wow!" yelled Rayman! His yelling echoed loudly through the cold, nearly-empty cave. He quickly placed the sphere on top of the small, triangular-shaped golden base. Then, suddenly, the magic base started magically rising up, out of the ground... revealing a tiny, round hole that was underneath the base. The Magic Base floated in mid-air, allowing Rayman to go down through the hole, which the base had previously been blocking.  
When Rayman dropped down through this tiny hole, he landed in a huge, round room. There were a whole bunch of flying eels that were made up of black, fuzzy segments. They flew closer to him, threatening to eliminate him. Quickly, Rayman shot silver energy balls at them, causing them to collapse. Then, at the far end of this room, Rayman saw a closed doorway, which was shaped like the Cave Guardian's mouth, and on the ground in front of it, there were two more magic bases, one purple and one blue. Rayman figured that he would have to locate two similar-coloured magic spheres, probably in other rooms of the cave, and bring them here.  
Off to the left, there was another hallway, which Rayman walked through. The hallway split into two separate corridors. Rayman took the one on the left. It led to a room where there was a blue Magic Sphere. Rayman picked it up, carried it back to the room with the Magic Bases, and placed it on top of a base. Then he ran back through the hallway where it split into two corridors, but this time he took the one on the right. This probably led to the purple Magic Sphere!  
But first, he had to navigate a tunnel full of purple slime. At the beginning of this slime tunnel, there was a dead hand sticking out of the slime, and it was holding a skull-shaped platform, which Rayman hopped onto and stood on. Then, while Rayman was standing on it, the hand suddenly began to rise up higher! When it rose, this allowed Rayman could reach a high-up ledge nearby. From this ledge, he saw a long row of purple flying targets floating in front of him, above the slime up ahead. Rayman shot at the first one, grabbed onto the rope that appeared, and swung from it, and from there, grabbed onto another flying target, then the next one... Beyond the last flying target, there were two walls that kept opening and closing. When Rayman swung from the last flying target and jumped off to ground on the other side, he timed it so that he landed on the other side when the two walls were open. When he landed on the path on the other side, he turned a sharp right corner. From here, the rest of the tunnel was a repetitive gauntlet of more skull-shaped platforms that were floating in the slime, more small ledges that were sticking out of the slime, and even more flying eels, then one more dead hand holding a skull-shaped platform, which Rayman hopped onto. It rose up higher, while Rayman was still standing on it, and from here, he could reach one more ledge, and on here, there was...  
...the purple Magic Sphere!  
"I made it!" yelled Rayman. Oops. He yelled so loudly that it caused the cave to shake, and some stallactites fell from the ceiling.  
"Owch!" yelled Rayman as one of them landed on his head.  
Apparently, this slime tunnel had led around in a circle, and the ledge that Rayman was now standing on was high-up above the doorway that he had gone through to enter this room! He tossed the purple Magic Sphere down to where that doorway was below, then glided down, picked it up again, and carried the sphere back to the room with the two bases. He placed the purple sphere on top of the second base.  
...now, both bases were on top of both spheres. But the door STILL wouldn't open! Why not?  
Then Rayman realized, "Oops, I put the purple sphere on the blue base, and the blue sphere on the purple base!" He blushed in embarrassment. He took the spheres off the bases, and placed them back on the correct coloured bases. And he watched as the door slowly opened. A lot of green smoke came billowing out of the doorway, and when the smoke cleared, Rayman walked through the doorway... 


	11. Chapter 7: The Return

Chapter 7: Returning to the Menhir Hills  
  
WARNING: The following chapter is a bit boring, but hey, I had to put it in my story, so the story would flow...  
  
Back in the peaceful, quiet Menhir Hills, in the pirates' second hideout, Clark was still sitting tiredly, leaning against the wall, and waiting for Rayman to return with the elixir. He wondered if Rayman had survived the Cave Guardian's gauntlet...  
Then, he heard footsteps coming. It was Rayman--and, yes, in his hands was the Elixir of Life!  
"Here, Clark!" spoke Rayman! "Here's the elixir!"  
"Thanks, little buddy," said Clark, still tired. Rayman handed it over to Clark. Slowly, Clark drank from it.  
Before Rayman could ask, "Does it taste good?", Clark stood up, his eyes big with excitement, and he yelled, "YAHOOOOO!" It was obvious that he was feeling better, now. He picked up Rayman, hugging him.  
"Now, I can go crush a whole bunch more pirates!" he yelled!  
"Coooool," replied Rayman. "But, put me down first, okay?"  
Clark did. Then, he charged through the wooden door leading into the next room of the hideout, screaming in excitement, "YEEEEEP!!!!!" Clark made a big hole in the door when he charged through it.  
Rayman followed Clark through the hole.  
In the second room, there weren't any more Robo-Pirates, to Clark's disappointment. There was a spiky, iron gate blocking the way into the next hallway. Not even Clark could break this one down! The gate was too strong. He attempted to smash through it, but he failed, and it only gave him a fist-ache.  
Rayman looked up. Was there any button here to open up this gate? Nope, but there was a purple flying target above him! He shot energy at the flying target, to create a magic rope which he could swing across. From here, he could reach another purple target, and then a third one, which was even higher above him! While swinging from the third flying purple target, he could reach a tiny hole in the wall up above, which he jumped through. When he dropped out through the other side, he landed in the hallway on the other side of the metal gate.  
There was also a red button on the wall here. Rayman thought, "Hmmm..." He shot a ball of energy at it. This caused the metal gate to open!--so Clark could get past it and come with Rayman.  
"I hope there's some pirates here for me to crush..." said Clark.  
There was a sharp left turn in the hallway ahead. There was a beautiful, yellow stained glass window on the wall, and also another wooden doorway blocking their path. No problem for Clark, who quickly charged through it, just as he had done with the first wooden doorway. Behind this doorway, there was a third room, which contained an open doorway leading outside to the backyard of the hideout.  
Rayman went through the exit, but Clark spoke: "I can't come with you. There's some bramble outside that I can't get across. Anyway, I'm off to find more Robo-Pirates to fight. See you later, little buddy!"  
Rayman still was wondering what that elixir had tasted like...  
The morning sun was shining brightly here. In the backyard of the hideout, there was green grass, a wooden tree stump, and--just as Clark had mentioned--a bunch of red, prickly bramble covering the path to the right!  
  
Then suddenly, Murfy flew by and buzzed: "Awwh, Rayman! I didn't think you'd ever get past the Cave of Bad Dreams!...It's good to see that you're still alive! And look what I found in the Tree Tops while you were getting the elixir..." He handed Rayman several Yellow Lums. Rayman now had 280 Yellow Lums!  
"Now be careful!" Murfy warned him (and he shivered while speaking this next sentence). "In this area, there's a giant, flying missile shell that has come to life, and it's heading over this way!"  
This information scared Rayman.  
"The shell might start chasing you around," continued Murfy, "but Ly told me that it might be possible to tame it by tiring it..."  
Rayman thought about it.  
"Thanks for the hint," he said, bowing to Murfy.  
"No problem," said Murfy, flying away. "Anyway, I've got to get outta here, before the flying shell comes..."  
Everything was then quiet for a few seconds.  
Then unexpectedly, and from out of nowhere, the flying shell suddenly came noisily zooming towards Rayman! It was a grey, metal shell with a skull painted on its back. Rayman tried hiding behind the wooden tree stump to avoid it. But the shell curved around the tree stump and followed him there. Then Rayman quickly remembered Murfy's advice.  
Rayman kept running in circles, to avoid the flying shell, and the shell still kept following him. This went on for about fifteen seconds, but eventually, the giant shell got tired of chasing Rayman around, and so it screeched to a halt and stopped.  
Rayman then sighed in relief...but he still didn't know how the heck he would get over the bramble on the path on the right.  
He sat on top of the giant tired shell, while pondering over the problem.  
Suddenly, the giant missile shell started flying again, with Rayman still sitting on it! An it flew over the area with the red bramble that was on the ground, and it kept on flying! It picked up more and more speed.  
Across this bramble area, there was a cave-like tunnel. The speedy shell flew through it. There were some large menhirs sticking out of the ground. They fell over, and would have squished Rayman and the flying shell, if the shell hadn't steered around them.  
This was a wild ride. After passing several more menhirs, the shell flew over to an outdoor area. Here, there was a giant gap in the ground, hundreds of feet below them. Rayman looked down. It was very dizzying. He wouldn't want to fall off the shell and fall down into there! Then, he suddenly lost his grip, fell off the flying shell, and fell into there.  
Rayman screamed, as he plummetted rapidly down into the deep gap below. It was gonna be a super-hard landing...  
Luckily, there was a Teensie standing down there, and it saved Rayman from a hard landing, by quickly creating a magic portal for Rayman to fall through. Rayman fell through the portal, instead of landing on the very hard ground below. Rayman got sucked into the portal and got teleported to somewhere new...  
Rayman's total number of Yellow Lums was now 305 out of 999. He still wasn't finished yet... 


	12. Chapter 8: The Rain Dance

Chapter 8: The Tree Tops  
  
WARNING: This chapter is a bit more interesting than Chapter 7. Read carefully, 'cuz I've put some interesting made-up details in this chapter...  
  
The portal led to an area called The Tree Tops. Rayman ended up in a room inside one of the trees in the forest canopy. The yellow morning sunlight shone through the holes in this hollow tree, making everything look extremely bright.  
Even though this was the sunniest day in history, it wasn't necessarily a peaceful one. Murfy flew by, buzzing loudly in fear. "Be careful, because there are some giant spiders lurking around in these trees! I wouldn't want to get eaten by one!..."  
"Will they want to eat me, too?" asked Rayman.  
"I dunno...maybe, maybe not, but just to be safe, don't let them get you!" replied Murfy, scared. He then flew away, in case any spiders would suddenly appear.  
Rayman proceeded further through the inside of this tree. Then, without any warning, a giant, black, hairy spider dropped from the ceiling and started charging towards Rayman. Did the spider think that Rayman was a fly?  
"I'm not a fly! I'm not a fly, you idiot!" screamed Rayman. He created a ball of energy in his fists. As the spider charged towards Rayman, Rayman threw his ball of energy at it. The spider got stunned, but then quickly recovered. It continued charging towards Rayman. Rayman hopped over it. He decided that it was better to run away from this spider than to stay and fight it. It could end up killing Rayman!  
There was a cobweb on one of the walls inside this tree, which Rayman grabbed onto and climbed up. The spider still followed Rayman, up the cobweb. Rayman climbed all the way to the end of the cobweb, and jumped off onto a ledge sticking out of the walls on the right. From here, there was a giant hole in the tree, which Rayman hopped through to get outside.  
The sun was shining very brightly outside. Rayman was now standing on a high-up branch on the outside of the tree. There was actually a whole bridge made of tree branches, and this allowed Rayman to cross over to another hollow tree, which also had an opening in it. He walked across the branch bridge carefully, to avoid falling off it. There were a few Yellow Lums on this tree branch bridge that he was standing on. He picked them all up. He now had 460 Yellow Lums. Rayman entered the second tree through the opening in it.  
In the room in the second tree, there was a room with a few more Yellow Lums! He picked them up, and he now had 470 Yellow Lums! In the center of this room, there was also a small hole. Rayman wondered if he should go down through it? He decided he'd have to see what was down there, since there wasn't anywhere else to go! So he dropped through the tiny hole. Down, down, down, he fell through the hole in the tree...  
...and he landed on the floor of another room, this one inside the second tree. Here, he could hear someone humming boredly. It sounded like Globox! Was this where the pirates had imprisoned Globox for the second time?  
There was a sign on the wall, which the Robo-Pirates had put up. It read:  
"Imprisoned here is Public Enemy #2. His rain-dance led to the rusting of several brave Robo-Pirate commanders..."  
This must be where Globox is imprisoned!, thought Rayman.  
There was a huge gap in the ground, with a small, narrow bridge leading to the other end. Here, Rayman could see that there was a caged area, where Globox probably was trapped.  
So, Rayman ran across this bridge, to access Globox's cage. Suddenly, a Robo-Pirate popped out of the ground.  
"Arrh, arrh, ARRH!" yelled the pirate! The pirate pulling out its gun. "You've made it this far! I don't believe it! You must NOT set Globox free! You must NOT set him free!!!!!...I guess he didn't listen to me," said the pirate, lying defeated on the ground, after Rayman shot several balls of energy at him.  
Then, Rayman stepped up to the area where Globox's cage was. However, he didn't see how he was going to free Globox. There wasn't any button that could be activated...oh, yes, there was. On the far cave walls across the room. Rayman created another ball of energy in his fists, and shot it at this button.  
Yippie-yippie!!!!! This button opened Globox's cage! Just as Rayman had predicted!!!!!  
"Yeah! Rayman is the greatest!" yelled Globox.  
"It must have been very boring, being held in that prison room for three whole days," Rayman thought.  
"Not really..." said Globox. "I drew some pictures on the wall of the prison to keep myself busy..."  
"What did you do when there wasn't any more space left on the wall?" asked Rayman.  
"Then I washed off my old pictures, with the rain from my rain-dance, to make room for new pictures. ...Anyway, thanks for freeing me! Now, follow me, and I'll help you get further..."  
Globox hopped out of his prison. Then, he walked over across the narrow bridge. Rayman followed him back across the bridge, back to where Rayman had entered this room.  
"You see this other hallway?" said Globox. There was a hallway leading to another room of the tree, which Rayman and Globox could go through...if a red laser forcefield didn't keep appearing in front of the hallway entrance when they approached it! There was a small machine-like object creating a red laser forcefield in front of the tunnel, when they approached it. The laser forcefield blocked the hallway to the next room, and Rayman said it looked like there was no way past it.  
"Yes, there is..." said Globox, "...if we just rust the machine that's creating the laser forcefield!"  
"Oh," said Rayman. "I should have known!"  
Then Globox started doing a rain-dance, causing a rain cloud to appear over the machine. Heavy rain poured out from this dark cloud, which rusted the machine. The machine couldn't make any more forcefields now! So the forcefield that had been there faded away, and now Rayman and Globox could enter this tunnel that had been previously blocked by the forcefield.  
  
In the next room, there were some Yellow Lums. Rayman picked them all up. He now had 480. There was also a small flower on the ground.  
"Hi, little flower!" spoke Globox. "What's your name? Rose? My name's Globox! ...Hmm...it looks like you need some water...well, don't worry..." Globox walked up in front of the flower, and did a rain-dance while standing in front of the small flower. A cloud then appeared over the flower, and rain came pouring from the cloud, which watered the flower and caused it to grow bigger. Rayman could now stand on the top of this giant-sized flower, like a platform, to reach a ledge that was high above it. But unfortunately, Globox couldn't hop that high, and even if he could, his heavy weight would squish the flower.  
Rayman then walked across this ledge and entered another tunnel. It was very dark inside here. There was a long path in this tunnel, leading over a huge pit. However, there was some fire blocking his path. Globox's rain-dance could have easily put out this fire, but Globox couldn't reach this high-up area!  
Then, Rayman turned back and walked out of the tunnel, back to the ledge that was above the giant flower. He sat and thought about what to do to get Globox up here...  
Then, he noticed a wooden pole sticking out from this ledge. Rayman shot at it, to break it and knock it over. This created a bridge, so Globox could walk across it and get up there.  
Globox then walked across this ledge and entered the dark tunnel where the fire was. He did his rain-dance. Once again, a rain-cloud appeared. The rain doused the fire easily. So, Rayman and Globox both walked further through the tunnel.  
At the other end of the tunnel, beyond where the fire had been, there was another room, which was brighter. The sun shone through this room. It looked peaceful in here...until a Robo-Pirate popped up from the ground. Rayman fought it and defeated it, again.  
Globox ran and hid in a corner of the room.  
Rayman, after knocking down the pirate, walked up to where Globox was hiding, and asked, "What's the matter? Are you afraid?"  
"No, no!" said Globox--afraid to admit he was afraid.  
"There's no shame in being scared, you know," Rayman assured him. "The warship and the pirates are very dangerous. Oh, if only I had more of my powers back, I could get rid of more of them..."  
"Powers? Globox forgot that!" Globox pulled a Silver Lum out. "Here's another gift that Ly told me to give to you..."  
"A SILVER LUM!" yelled Rayman!  
"This will make your fists stronger," explained Globox.  
"This will make my fists stronger..." repeated Rayman. "Okay!"  
Then, the two of them went through the exit of the room.  
They came to an outdoor area, high above the ground outside. There was a very long tree-branch, creating a bridge across the canopy, leading to the opening of another tree. The entrance to this tree, however, was blocked by another laser forcefield being created by a machine. Not only that, but the machine creating the laser forcefield, also had a laser forcefield around it, which was being created by a second machine! Globox was about to approach the second machine and was about to rust it with his rain-dance, when...  
Suddenly, the pirates' warship appeared, swooping overhead.  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" panicked Globox. "AAAH, AAH," he continued screaming, running back and hiding in another hole in the tree.  
This left Rayman to deal with the warship. It fired a whole bunch of cannonballs down to the bridge that Rayman was standing on, trying to destroy it. KA-BLAM-BOOM-BOOMB-BLAM-BLOOM-BAM-KABLOOM! But luckily, this bridge was very stable, and it did not break.  
"Arrh!" Razorbeard yelled, from inside the warship. "I'll just have to send out a bunch of my Robo-Pirates to attack..."  
Then, a whole swarm of Robo-Pirates jumped out of the warship, and onto the bridge, ambushing Rayman and pulling out their guns and swords. Using his stronger fists, Rayman made a very big blast of silver energy, and fired it at one of the pirates. It collapsed and was defeated. Rayman did the same thing with the other pirates, dodging their shots and firing his own bursts of energy at them. It was an incredibly long battle. Finally, the last Robo-Pirate was down. The warship then flew away. Rayman thought he could hear Razorbeard saying, "Arrrrrh...I'll be back..."  
  
Rayman ran back to Globox, to tell him it was now safe to come out, again.  
"You actually got rid of that massive army?" said Globox. "Well, thank goodness..." Then, he and Rayman walked to the other end of the bridge, where there was another machine creating a focefield blocking the machine that was creating a forcefield blocking the entrance to the next oak tree. Globox just deactivated the second forcefield machine (the one that was creating a forcefield protecting the first machine), and then the forcefield around the first machine faded away. Then, Globox did his rain- dance on the first machine (the one creating the forcefield that was blocking the entrance to the next tree). The machine was now rusted and deactivated--and the forcefield around the entrance to the next tree turned off. Rayman and Globox entered the inside of the hollow tree.  
Inside THIS tree, there was a room, also containing a huge, metal doorway leading into another room. Rayman approcahed this doorway, but there was a red spotlight on the floor, coming from a security camera that was detecting any intruders. The door closed, not letting Rayman enter. It looked impossible to get any further, now.  
But then, Globox noticed a small, bushy red plant on the ground near the door. Globox watered it, by doing another rain-dance. The plant grew bigger.  
"Huh?" said Rayman. "Globox, what do you plan to do with this giant plant?"  
"Hide in here, Rayman," whispered Globox, "and use it to disguise yourself..."  
Rayman hopped into the huge, leafy plant. He now looked like a very big-nosed bush. He then moved towards the door again, this time disguising himself by holding the giant, red leaves of the plant in front of him.  
The red spotlight on the ground detected Rayman, again.  
"Identification under way..." said the speaker that was above the door. Then it said: "Everything's okay. It's just a very big-nosed bush. Security door inactivated."  
Then, the red spotlight disappeared, and the doorway opened up. Rayman hurried through it.  
"Phew! They didn't recognize me!" said Rayman. "They think I'm just a bush!"  
Behind this door, there was a cage containing a Teensie. It opened up the entrance to another portal and spoke: "This leads to the Whale Bay." Rayman hopped into it.  
"Good luck in the rest of your adventure, Rayman!" said Globox. "I can't come with you. My darling Uglette wants to see me." Uglette was Globox's wife.  
The Teensie also created a portal for Globox to get back to his home, which was in the Woods of Light. Globox hopped through the portal which led back to the Woods of Light, and Rayman went through the portal leading to the Whale Bay. He now had a total of 505 Yellow Lums. They all shone brightly... 


	13. Chapter 9: The Endangered

Chapter 9: Whale Bay  
  
"Nooo! Don't harm me!" yelled Carmen as the pirates chased her into an underwater cavern. "I have brothers...and sisters...capture them, instead!"  
The pirates, ignoring her shouts for help, turned on a blue laser forcefield which stopped Carmen from escaping out of the small, tight cavern. Carmen's brothers and sisters all watched in horror, their eyes wide, as Carmen was being captured.  
"So, now that we've captured this huge hulk of blubber," said Razorbeard, "we just have to decide what to do with it!"  
"Make it into a rug!" suggested the first henchman.  
"Nah, we've got enough rugs," said Razorbeard.  
"Well, we could eat the meat from it," said the second henchman.  
"I asked what should we do with the BLUBBER? You idiot," said Razorbeard.  
Then the third pirate came up with a suggestion.  
"Hmm...that sounds like a good idea," said Razorbeard.  
"Nooooo!" sobbed Carmen. If only she could escape from the cavern that she was trapped in...  
  
Meanwhile, Rayman was entering Whale Bay--not the same part where Carmen was, though. When Rayman arrived at Whale Bay, he found himself in a large, cold, indoor aquarium room. There were walls made of grey stone, wooden floorboards, and a giant tank full of light blue water and some green seaweed. There was a hallway to the left, so Rayman ran through it. The wooden floorboard creaked underneath his feet. Other than that, it was very quiet in this aquarium, except for the sounds of the fish blowing bubbles.  
Suddenly, Rayman bumped into a Robo-Pirate who was hiding inside a wooden barrel, which had holes for the pirates' eyes to look through, and holes in the bottom for his feet to go through. There was also a tube sticking out of the top of the wooden barrel, which started shooting out bolts of blue electricity at Rayman! Rayman dodged this. This was a very strong Robo-Pirate enemy which required several shots to defeat it. So, Rayman just kept on dodging and firing rapid balls of energy and soon he had the enemy defeated. It dropped some Yellow Lums. Rayman picked them up; there were five of them. He now had a total of 510 Yellow Lums!  
Rayman proceeded further, down the quiet hallway. The doorway leading outside was blocked by a blue laser forcefield.  
"Oh, no..." sighed Rayman. "Here we go again...time to find a red button to turn it off...man, this is getting repetitive..."  
He turned back, desperately searching all the walls for a red button. He then spotted one. It was inside the giant fish tank. Rayman climbed into the giant tank (luckily the fish in here didn't bite), dived down under the water, and swam through it, until he reached the button, which he shot at. Then, he swam back up to the surface of the fish tank, jumped out, and hurried over to the exit of the building again, to see if the laser forcefield had been deactivated. It had been.  
When he exited the building, he was now in a very wide-open outdoor area, covered in grains of brown sand. The weather was extremely windy and cold, ruining what probably would have been a very sunny, peaceful feel. There were a few tall, green palm trees here. Green pinching crabs crawled along the beaches. There was, in the distance, a huge, deep blue lake. Rayman dove down into the lake in search of anything valuable. It was a good thing that he knew how to swim.  
Down in this very, very deep blue lake, there were some small blue whales swimming around slowly. They looked depressed and worried...  
"What's wrong?" asked Rayman.  
"Our sister Carmen has just been captured by the pirates..." the first whale sobbed. These whales were Carmen's brothers and sisters.  
"And we heard the pirates saying that they want to use her blubber to oil the engines of their prison boat..." cried the second whale. "They chose to capture Carmen instead of us because she was the biggest whale with the most blubber."  
"She'd better still be okay," one of them sobbed. Carmen's brothers and sisters were all "blubbering" over the kidnapping of Carmen.  
Rayman looked around the underwater lake. He could see Carmen nearby, trapped inside a big underwater cavern, surrounded by blue laser forcefields blocking the entrance of the cavern.  
"I hear that you've been able to free fairies, Teensies, and Globoxes," said the third whale. "Do you think you could also free our sister Carmen?"  
Even though Rayman wasn't associated with Greenpeace, he still agreed to save Carmen.  
"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll be fine," Rayman spoke, assuringly, even though he didn't know for sure. He then swam through an underwater tunnel nearby, which was to the left of the cavern that Carmen was trapped inside. Carmen was watching Rayman. She was really worried about getting killed and skinned by the pirates later, but she knew that Rayman was trying to free her, and he'd probably succeed. If Rayman didn't exist, Carmen would only have twenty-five more minutes to live... Rayman's bravery impressed her.  
The underwater tunnel Rayman swam through was very long. There were only a few Blue Lums of oxygen here, but they were all real lifesavers to Rayman.  
At the end of this long, lengthy tunnel, Rayman found himself inside a strange, wooden room, which he walked through. It was very quiet inside here, except for the creaking of the wooden floorboard he stepped across again. On the wooden wall at the end of this strange room, there was a red button. Rayman shot at it, to activate it. This opened the bars of Carmen's cage, back in the lake area, where the pirates had captured Carmen. She was now free. Rayman turned back and swam back to the lake area, to meet Carmen.  
"Thanks, Rayman," Carmen spoke, garteful to be swimming freely once again. "I'll help you find the way to a new area. Follow me and grab the magic air bubbles that I make, if you're low on oxygen while underwater. They'll give you extra breath."  
She swam to another underwater tunnel that was also very, very long. Carmen and Rayman both swam through it.  
When Rayman's oxygen supply decreased, he quickly grabbed onto the air bubbles that Carmen was making. There weren't any Blue Lums in this tunnel at all. But like the Blue Lums, Carmen's special bubbles contained extra oxygen for Rayman.  
Soon, they came out of the tunnel and entered a wide-open pit underwater. There was an old, wooden, sunken pirate ship in the distance.  
  
Carmen warned Rayman: "The piranhas are coming to take my air bubbles!"  
A pair of piranhas then swam towards Carmen, and when Carmen tried to make an air bubble for Rayman to grab onto, the piranhas kept taking them and popping them, before Rayman even got a chance to pick up these bubbles.  
  
Rayman's face was quickly turning blue. He could hardly breathe anymore. Water was rapidly filling up in his nostrils and his mouth. He thought that this would be the end of his career as an adventurer...  
Then, quickly, he tried shooting balls of energy (from his fists) at these pesky piranha twins, in case it would defeat them. It stunned them for a few seconds--but they then recovered quickly. However, Rayman had stunned them long enough so that he could at least grab one of the air bubbles that Carmen was blowing!  
"Ahhhhh...I can breathe, again, at last..." sighed Rayman, inhaling...  
He kept on shooting at the piranhas and grabbing onto more of Carmen's precious bubbles, as he and Carmen kept on swimming further...  
Eventually, the two of them came to a sunken Robo-Pirate ship in the deep underwater ocean. Rayman swam away from Carmen, and he went over to this old, sunken shipwreck. He could see that there were also some Blue Lums over there, so he wouldn't have to worry about running out of oxygen here, at least.  
He swam through a hole inside the bottom of the shipwreck. Inside, there was old, green, wooden board, some artifacts, some wooden barrels, and a few picture frames. This must have been a very old ship. Several groups of tiny fish were also swimming around here, interested in all of the ancient artifacts. There was another hole, in the top of the old ship, which Rayman swam through. It led out of the ship. When he came out, he was in another outside area, on the surface of a lake. He hopped out of the ship, and up onto the surface of the lake. There were a whole bunch of Yellow Lums floating in the water here, too. Rayman made sure he picked up all of them. He now had 540 Yellow Lums! This lake area was surrounded by grey cliff walls. On one of these cliff walls, there was a rope ladder which could be climbed up. He jumped out of the lake, and grabbed onto this rope ladder. While climbing up it, he could reach the top of the cliffs, where there were a few more Yellow Lums and an inactive energy portal. Halfway up the rope ladder, there was also a small cave in the cliff walls, behind a waterfall on the left. Rayman hopped off the rope ladder and glided into the cave ebhind the waterfall. There was a short passage here, containing a peg-legged Robo-Pirate.  
"Not another peg-legged one!" frowned Rayman. "I hated the one that I encountered in the Marshlands! He was scary! And he stunk."  
"I heard that," said the peg-legged pirate. "Stop insulting us!" It then charged towards him furiously. Rayman turned back and stood near the edge of the cave entrance, which was overlooking the lake. The pirate ran over to there, but fell into the lake. SPLASH! That got rid of it.  
Inside this cave tunnel, there was also another pirate cage. Rayman smashed it open--BAM! BAM!--and out came another Teensie.  
"Good news!" the hyper, excited Teensie spoke. "I know where the second mask is! I know where the second mask is!"  
"Great!" replied Rayman.  
The Teensie walked back out of the cave, hopped up onto the rope ladder on the cliff walls outside the cave, and climbed up it, and got up onto the top of the cliffs, where the energy portal was. The Teensie opened it up, with his energetic magic dance. Then, Rayman hopped into the portal.  
He now had 555 Yellow Lums! The ones he had got from Whale Bay were a bit wet from being hidden away in the water, though... 


	14. Chapter 10: The Plum Raft

Chapter 10: The Sanctuary of Stone and Fire  
  
For the third time, Rayman found himself in the large, dark void which was the Teensies' Council Chamber. The Teensie that Rayman had rescued at the end of Whale Bay had come here too. This Teensie had a crown on his head...and this time, there definitely didn't seem to be any other Teensies with him. The Teensie jumped excitedly and spoke, "Oh, welcome, welcome, Rayman! From here, we can take you to where the second mask is! That's right--we're gonna get the second mask! I'm so excited!...And look! Look, Rayman! We're really more organized, this time! Yes, we've finally got it figured out--I really am the real King of the Teensi--"  
Suddenly, three other Teensies dropped from the ceiling of the room, and each one of them yelled, "Oh, no, you're not! I am!" Then, they all grabbed the first Teensie's crown and started fighting over it. "I'm the real king of the Teensies! Not you!" "No, I'm the real king!"  
"All right, enough of the stupid arguing!" shouted Rayman. "Just open the dang portal already!"  
"You're right," replied the second Teensie, who was now holding the crown. "We should open the dang portal already...but it will require the energy of 300 Yellow Lums!"  
By now, Rayman had 355 out of 999 Yellow Lums.  
"Yup, I've got enough Yellow Lums," he replied. So, the Teensies used the energy from these Yellow Lums to activate the giant portal leading into the Sanctuary of Fire and Stone.  
  
*****  
  
The Sanctuary of Stone and Fire was a hot, humid volcanic mountain area with an orange sky. The grassy ground outside the crater was charred with black ashes from the volcanoes which had once been active long ago... At the bottom of the area was reddish-brown, half-hardened lava which would burn your feet even if you were wearing big shoes!  
Rayman was standing in a grassy area above a deep canyon of lava. He walked to the edge of the canyon, and gazed down. Although there was a lot of lava flowing through this canyon down below, there was also one small, brown, rocky patch of ground which was safe to stand on. So, activating his helicopter hair, he glided down to there. He landed on the small, brown patch of ground. From here, he saw a purple target floating in the air, which he grabbed onto so he could swing over to where there was another ledge...and from this ledge, Rayman could access a tunnel full of lava flowing through it.  
Inside the lava tunnle, there was a huge plum, almost the size of Rayman, and it was floating in the lava, but close to the ground that Rayman was standing on.  
Murfy flew by, and spoke: "I see you've found a giant plum!"  
Before Rayman could ask: "Are they edible?", Murfy began a long lecture about what Rayman should do with these giant plums. "Plums, Rayman, have many uses. For example, you can stand on top of the giant plum to reach higher areas. Or other times, such as now, you'll need to stand on the giant plum and ride it across the lava river, like a raft! To propel the plum forward while you're riding it, shoot energy in the opposite of the direction you want to go. You can also grab plums and throw them at enemies, sometimes."  
Rayman thanked Murfy for the hint. The long walk was making Rayman very hungry, and he felt like eating the plum...but he needed to use it as a raft to get across the lava river that was flowing through this tunnel! Then, as Murfy flew away, Rayman hopped on top of the giant plum. The giant plum supported Rayman's weight as he stood on it. The plum was squishy and it bounced a little bit, when he stood on it. He wanted to go down the lava river. So, he shot some balls of energy in the opposite direction. The plum moved forward through the lava tunnel. Rayman kept on firing balls of energy to propel the giant plum raft forward through the tunnel...  
At the end of this tunnel, Rayman got off the giant plum. There was some solid ground up ahead, which Rayman could walk across.  
"It was nice meeting you, plum," Rayman said to the plum.  
"Hey! Why are you trying to talk to me? Plums can't talk!" yelled the plum.  
"But...you just talked!" said Rayman.  
"Oops," said the plum.  
Rayman walked further, after saying good-bye to the plum. There was a grassy outdoor area where the path suddenly split into two. Which direction should Rayman go in? Maybe both paths lead to something valuable!  
Just then, Globox appeared!  
"Globox! What are you doing here?" asked Rayman.  
"Uh...just thought I'd help you search for Yellow Lums," replied Globox.  
"But aren't you scared of the lava in this area?" asked Rayman. Then he realized that was a stupid question, because of course Globox could use his rain-dance cool off the lava for a while, or to put out fires!  
"I'll take the path on the left," suggested Globox, "and you, Rayman, can take the one on the right!"  
"All right," said Rayman. "We must gather lots of Yellow Lums, or soon the world won't have enough energy left!"  
"That's right!" said Globox.  
Then, right away, Globox left, leaving Rayman to take the path on the right!  
It was a very, very long path. Rayman wondered if he'd ever reach the second mask... Soon, he came to another cave. The walls of this cave were very rocky and brown. There wasn't any lava in here, luckily. ...Then suddenly, a giant, dark black, one-eyed monster, which looked like a small black version of Jano (but without a top hat), popped up from the ground!  
"Huh? I don't believe it! It's Adam again!" yelled Rayman in shock.  
  
"Yep," said Adam the black one-eyed monster. "I'm back! You may have defeated me earlier in your quest, but I've recovered from that beating you gave me!"  
"I'm gonna get rid of you for good, Adam!" yelled Rayman, his voice echoing through the cave.  
"Yeah? Well, try and catch me if you can!" laughed Adam, in his dark voice. He then began running around one of the pillars in the room, to avoid getting hit by Rayman's energy balls. Rayman tried running around after him, but Adam was too fast. Adam hid behind the pillars in the cave room, occasionally turning around and spitting dark fireballs at Rayman!  
Eventually, after five minutes, Adam got exhausted from running around the room. This was Rayman's chance to shoot at Adam! BING! BZZING! BING! went the shots from Rayman's fist. Soon, Adam was defeated.  
  
"Yahoo! Yay!" shouted Rayman.  
This time, when Rayman had defeated Adam, Adam dropped another giant plum.  
Rayman was hungry, and he was about to eat the giant plum, which looked so juicy...but then, suddenly, the plum yelled, "Hey! Stop! If you eat me, you won't have anything to stand on so you can reach the high-up ledge in this cave!"  
"Oops, sorry," spoke Rayman.  
Rayman looked around. Sure enough, at the far end of this cave, there was a ledge that was just barely too high-up for Rayman to reach. However, if Rayman stood on top of the plum, that would probably give him enough extra height so he could reach that ledge up there! He was right. Rayman stood on top of the giant plum to reach that ledge up there.  
From this ledge, there was a tunnel leading out of the cave, and to another grassy canyon area. Rayman walked down the grassy but slightly rocky path which sloped downwards. There was a huge stone temple up ahead.  
  
"The second mask has got to be there!" As Rayman was heading towards it, he should have noticed that there was a wooden trapdoor underneath his feet...but no, he was staring up at the tall temple as he walked along the path--and he suddenly fell down through the trapdoor on the ground as he stepped on it unaware. PLOP!!!!! 


	15. What the Heck is Happening

The Sanctuary of Stone and Fire... (continued)  
  
When the limbless Rayman fell through the trapdoor on the ground, he thought that he was going to land in the basement of the temple...  
  
However, guess where he landed? Not in the basement of the temple! Instead, he landed in a strange room full of weird-coloured walls, floor, and ceiling!  
  
"Whoa...where am I?" asked Rayman.  
  
Then, suddenly, something was coming towards him... ...it was a big, black object...and it had the letters "WXYZ" painted on it. It looked like a box. A blue fox jumped out of it. It said to Rayman, "Hi, stranger! Would you like to eat some rocks, with an ox?"  
  
"No," said Rayman, "I'm busy searching for lums."  
  
"What are lums?" asked the blue fox. As it said this, it turned into a kangaroo. I mean a flamingo. Then, a coconut fell from the ceiling of the room. Rayman and the blue flamingo got sucked into the inside of the coconut, and inside the coconut, there was an apple, which they hopped into...  
  
...inside the apple, there was a worm! Rayman shot energy at the worm, but that turned it into a germ! He shot at it, again. It turned into a hen! He shot at it, some more. It turned into the floor! And on this floor, there was a picture of a boar! Rayman and the blue flamingo both hopped into the boar that was on the floor, and they ended up in front of a weird door! On the door, there was a monkey's face, which asked, "You need a magic base." Rayman said, "This is dumb! All I want to do is get lums! And why are we all talking in rhyme? Are we inside a lime?"  
  
The blue flamingo shook its tail, and replied, "You are now inside the Sanctuary of Weirdness and Oddness!"  
  
"Yuck!" yelled Rayman. "Get me out of here! Or I'll sing like a deer! I want to be back with Globox, not with you flamingo who used to be a fox! Oh, am I stuck here forever? If so, then this isn't clever!"  
  
"Yes, you're stuck here forever," said the blue flamingo, "and I think it's clever."  
  
"Yes, of course!" said the monkey's face. "It could be much worse! You could have ended up in the Sanctuary of Suckiness and Lameness instead! Did you hear what I said?"  
  
Then, Rayman burped. "Oops, I burped out loud! Hey!...why have you turned into a cloud? This place is getting weird, and I could be stuck here until I grow a beard! Hey! Limbs have now appeared! On my body...weird!" But then Rayman cheered!  
  
"You know, I wanna be back with Globox and Murfy..." (Then he burped again.) "Oops, I'm too scared here!..."  
  
"Hey!" yelled the cloud! "The words "Murfy" and "here" don't rhyme! In this sanctuary, you're only supposed to talk in rhyme! And you didn't talk in rhyme! Therefore, you are now banned from the sanctuary of Weirdness and Oddness, forever! forever! forever!..."  
  
*****  
  
Then, suddenly, everything around Rayman disappeared. Then, Rayman got teleported, once again, to a different sanctuary... The blue flamingo had sent Rayman off to another different sanctuary... This one had pink walls, floor, and ceiling...  
And then, a voice spoke: "You are now in the Sanctuary of Music and Songs."  
"I don't like this place..." said Rayman. "I want to get out of here..."  
Then the strange voice spoke: "If you want to return to where you belong, then you first must repeat the lyrics of the following song..."  
Then, a song started playing. Cool music could be heard. Then, the song started playing. Rayman had to repeat the lyrics of this song, if he wanted to get out of this place.  
However, Rayman couldn't understand the lyrics of the song! This is what it sounded like:  
"blablablablablablablablablablablabla! blablablablabla an inspiration,  
blablabla here's where i lose my patience,  
blablablabla an inspirtaion,  
blablabla here's where i lose my patience,  
my bla, my bla, my bla, this one bla bla I found,  
my bla, my bla, my bla, to make your bla bla,  
my bla, my bla, my bla, this one big bla I found,  
my bla, my bla, my bla, to make your bla bla,  
blablablablabla an inspiration,  
blablabla here's where i lose my patience..."  
  
"Huh?" said Rayman. "I can't understand the lyrics of this song! I cannot sing along!"  
"Oh. Sorry, then..." said the strange voice. "Hmm...well, if you can't complete that challenge...well, then, I might have another different challenge for you to try, instead...and I'll let you out of here if you can beat THIS next challenge..."  
Then, something suddenly came towards Rayman...it was big and black...it was a TV screen... Then, the TV screen turned on. The Nintendo icon appeared. Then, the words "Donkey Kong 64" appeared on the screen.  
"Here's my other challenge," said the strange voice. "If you can get all 201 golden bananas in Donkey Kong 64, then I'll let you out of here!"  
"Hey, wait," said Rayman, "I've played DK64 before, and getting the banana from the arcade minigame is impossible! I've been practicing it for 3 years, and I still can't beat it! The game is impossible! ...I'm doomed!"  
"Well, sorry," said the strange voice, "you ain't getting out of here, until you've beat DK64. Now just get all 201 bananas in DK64, or stay here for eternity!"  
"arrrrrrrrgh," yelled Rayman.  
Then, suddenly, Ly the fairy appeared in Rayman's mind, and said: "Hey, Rayman...Globox and Murfy and the Teensies are wondering if you're still okay...but I see that you've ended up here, and you seem to be stuck, and you can't get any further..."  
"Right," said Rayman to Ly.  
"Well," said Ly, "I'll give you a cheat code so you can get all 201 bananas in DK64 more easily..."  
Ly told Rayman the cheat.  
"Yahhooooo!" yelled Rayman!  
He then started playing DK64, and he used the cheat to get all 201 bananas more easily.  
He succeeded! So...  
  
Then, Rayman reappeared back outside the stone temple in the Sanctuary of Stone and Fire!  
  
"Whew!" said Rayman. "I'm back to where I'm supposed to be! Yahoo, woo-hoo, yippie! And it was perfect timing...Oh, no, I'm still rhyming?" (However, he had at least gone back to being limbless!)  
  
Then, Rayman, who was still standing outside the temple, ran up closer to the stone temple. This time, as he ran up to it, he looked down at the ground, to make sure that there weren't any more stupid trapdoors. What if he'd fall through another one, which would lead to the Sanctuary of Suckiness and Lameness? Rayman wouldn't want THAT to happen!  
  
He ran up to the stone temple. He was almost at the front door! There weren't any more trapdoors on the ground... However, before he could reach the front door of the temple...  
  
...the ground below him cracked. CCCCCRRRRRAAAAACCCCCKKKKK!!!!! Then, Rayman fell through the cracked ground... 


	16. Chapter 10: The Plum Raft continued

Chapter 10: The Sanctuary of Stone and Fire (still continued)  
  
When he landed, he was now in the underground basement of the temples. He was standing on a red, stone floor. A lava river was running through the middle of the basement. On the floor that Rayman was standing on, there was also a giant, purple plum. Rayman hopped onto it. He wanted to go down the lava river while riding the plum raft, so he fired energy in the opposite direction. The giant plum dropped off the floor, and onto the surface of the lava river, with Rayman still standing on top of it. It floated down the lava river slowly. Rayman kept firing energy backwards, to make the plum continue moving forward, down the lava river. It was a very steep river, and also very lengthy. And, as luck might have it, there were some Yellow Lums down here too! He now had 575 Yellow Lums! There weren't very many Yellow Lums here--just a few; however, Rayman remembered that Globox was taking another path in this area, trying to locate more lums to give Rayman...  
At the end of this treacherous, boiling river, there was a small doorway. Rayman went through it, still riding on top of the giant plum. Behind the doorway, there was another long hallway with dark, red bubbling lava flowing down through it, and Rayman kept firing even more energy to propel the giant plum further down through this room. When he finally reached the end of this second hallway, he hopped off the plum and onto the stone floor which was safe to stand on. The indoor lava river ended here, thank goodness.  
On the wall in front of Rayman, there were two doorways. A round, wooden wheel-like object on the wall was covering up one of these doorways, and so only one of them was currently accessible. Rayman walked through it.  
Through this doorway, Rayman found himself in a huge, pitch-black room containing a very deep, dark pit which seemed bottomless, and some ledges sticking out over this pit, sloping downwards.  
There was also a golden Magic Sphere here. It shone brightly in this room of darkness. Rayman wondered where the golden base was, which he was probably supposed to put the sphere onto. Maybe, it would be at the bottom of this area?  
He picked it up, and tossed it down to one of the ledges that was floating over the bottomless pit. Then, he glided down onto that ledge where he had thrown the sphere onto. From here, he tossed it over to the next ledge, and then he glided down to that ledge. This kept on going on, until he had got himself and the sphere over to the last ledge. From here, he could see that there was a small opening in the wall which led to a hallway. Rayman tossed the golden sphere over to that hallway, glided into the hallway, and picked up the sphere again and started proceeding down the hallway. He was sure that there would be a magic base somewhere here...  
Halfway through this hallway, there was a long, rectangular pool of lava between Rayman and the other end of the hallway. A giant plum was floating in the lava, which Rayman could probably stand on to cross the lava pool, but the plum was way at the other end of the lava pool--too far away for Rayman to jump onto it.  
Then, Murfy flew by and said: "Oh, I forgot to tell you, Rayman! If the giant plum is far away from you, you can shoot energy at it, and then it will move towards you."  
"Thanks, Murfy!" replied Rayman, smiling. He put down his golden sphere and fired a ball of energy at the giant plum, which caused it to move forwards, just as Murfy had mentioned. After the plum was closer to Rayman, he picked up his golden sphere again and stepped onto the plum. He probably had to carry the sphere across this lava pool, while riding on top of the giant plum. He had to shoot energy from his fists in the opposite direction, now, to make the plum move forward to the other end of the lava pool. However, his hands were full (he was holding the golden sphere), so he couldn't shoot energy from his fists!  
Then, Murfy whispered a suggestion in Rayman's ear.  
"Oh, yeah!" smiled Rayman. "I should have remembered this!"  
When Rayman was standing on top of the giant plum, he tossed his golden sphere into the air, then quickly shot some balls of energy from his fists to make the giant plum move forwards (now that his hands were free), and then he immediately caught the golden sphere as it came back down towards him. He kept doing this, until he got to the other end of the lava pool. And that was the technique he used so he could get his golden sphere to the other end of the lava pool, while riding the giant plum. Murfy followed Rayman across the lava pool, flying above it.  
Across this lava pool, Rayman carried his golden sphere through the rest of the hallway. He entered a new room, containing solid floor to walk on. However, there was also another narrow lava river which was flowing through the middle of the room, and out through a tunnel at the end of the room. Rayman could easily glide over this narrow lava river, to the floor on the other side. There was a golden Magic Base on the side of the river that Rayman was on. There was also a blue Magic Base on the other side of this river. Rayman didn't have a blue sphere yet, though, but he assumed that when both bases had spheres on them, this would open up some doorway leading to a guardian, which he would have to fight to get the second mask, just like with the first guardian. There was also a tall, stationary, wooden totem pole in the back of this room. It had a fierce-looking face painted on it. It didn't do anything or help him get further, in any way yet.  
Rayman gazed around this huge room. There was also an indoor balcony overhead. Rayman looked up at it, and he saw that the blue Magic Sphere was up here. He couldn't reach it yet, though. It was impossible. There was also a doorway on the other side of the lava river, which was blocked by a round, wooden wheel-shaped object on the wall. Too bad. That doorway might have some stairs behind it, leading up to the indoor balcony, where the blue Magic Sphere was.  
"Well...good luck trying to get further here!" buzzed Murfy, flying away. "Hope you can reach the Blue Sphere!"  
Rayman didn't have any clue about how to reach that Blue Magic Sphere. However, since Rayman at least had a golden Magic Sphere, he placed it on top of the golden Magic Base, on the side of the lava river that he was on. When this sphere touched the base, something happened. The round, wooden wheel-shaped object on the wall (on the other side of the river) rotated, revealing a doorway that had been hidden behind it.  
"Yahoo," said Rayman, walking through it. This probably led up to the indoor balcony, where the Blue Magic Sphere was! That was his prediction.  
On the other side of this doorway, there was a tunnel leading...back to the beginning of the temple basement, where Rayman had started. Back to square one. Now he had to go back all the way down this lava river on the giant purple plum AGAIN! He got frustrated and impatient as he did this. Crossly, he fired energy and made the plum move forward, thinking he wasn't going to get anywhere new.  
However, when Rayman got to the end of this lava river, he noticed that the other round, wooden wheel-shaped object on the wall here (at the end of the first lava river) had rotated too! Now a different doorway was open here. So Rayman hopped through it.  
Behind this doorway, there was a room with a lava pool, and some platforms sticking out of it, which Rayman easily glided across. On the other side of this red-hot pool, there was a purple flying target hanging in mid-air above the ground. When Rayman approached it, it suddenly started flying away from him! It flew through another room up ahead, where there was a slippery brown slide, and it seemed as if Rayman would have to go down this slippery slide to chase after it! He stared at the slide. There were several sharp turns and also, on either side of the slide, lava pools. Rayman had no choice but to hop down this slide. The purple target kept flying further. Rayman chased after it, to see where it was going. Down the slide he slid, hotly pursuing the purple flying target. There was a tight turn, and lava on the right side of the slide. Rayman slowed down to get better control, and he turned left to stay on the slide and avoid the lava on the right. There was another tight turn. Rayman steered himself to the right. He almost fell into the lava on the left, but he didn't. Then, after several more extremely tight turns, the purple flying hook came to a lava gap.  
As Rayman came sliding down this slide, and was catching up to the purple target, he noticed he was almost at the end of the slide, and that there was a huge lava gap up ahead!!!!! Rayman was gonna fall into that lava gap! He screamed in fright...but luckily, the purple target was now directly above this lava gap that was up ahead...so quickly, Rayman shot a ball of energy at the flying target, grabbed onto the rope that appeared from it, and swung over the lava gap up ahead. Then, across it, there was another slide, and another purple flying hook! It, too, flew away from Rayman, when he slid towards it. Rayman chased it down the next slide...  
...and when he got to the end of the slide, he saw that he had ended up at the indoor balcony where the Blue Magic Sphere was! The purple flying hook had also gone here. Rayman picked up the magic sphere in his hands. He tossed it down to the first floor below the balcony, where the Blue Magic Base was. Then, he glided down from the balcony and landed on the floor below. He picked up the blue sphere again, and placed it on top of the blue base.  
Now, both spheres were on both bases. Suddenly, the room shook!  
The brown totem pole in the front of the room, woke up. The Magic Spheres on the bases had caused the totem pole to come to life.  
"I am UMBER," it spoke, "the Guardian of the Sanctuary of Stone and Fire. You're not gonna get the second mask from me!"  
"Oh, yes, I will!" replied Rayman.  
"Oh, no, you won't!" roared Umber.  
However, Umber wasn't as strong as he looked. It turned out that Rayman was able to defeat Umber very easily... Using the purple flying target that was now overhead, Rayman swung back up to the balcony above him. From here, he glided onto the top of Umber's head. Then, for some reason, Umber started walking forward...with Rayman still standing on Umber's head! Umber walked through the lava river that was flowing through the room and out through another hallway...this hallway led outside...and, when Umber was almost at the end of the lava river, he started to sink. When Umber sank into the lava river, Rayman glided off Umber's head...and onto a patch of grassy land that was outside the temples.  
There was a box here. Rayman opened it...and inside it...  
THERE WAS POLOKUS' SECOND MASK!!!!!  
However, before Rayman could pick it up, Globox suddenly came running by, and he spoke: "Wait, Rayman! Don't leave this area yet! I have to give you some Yellow Lums, which I found in another part of this area..."  
"Oh, yeah!" remembered Rayman. "Thanks!"  
Globox handed them to Rayman, which brought Rayman's total number of Yellow Lums up to 605!  
Then, Rayman picked up the second mask, and he automatically got teleported back to the grassy, night-time lake area where Polokus was still sitting on his pedestal.  
"You have found the second mask," spoke Polokus. "Good, Rayman, you're getting closer to your goal! Just two more masks, and I will awaken..."  
Then he opened a portal, leading into a new area.  
"Be careful, the rest of your quest will be even harder!" he warned Rayman. 


	17. Chapter 11: Trouble in the Cliffs Zone

Chapter 11: The Echoing Caverns  
  
The Echoing Caverns was part of the cliffs zone. When Rayman came out of the portal, he was standing in a grassy field, outside the Echoing Caverns. There was very heavy rain pouring out here. He didn't see any Yellow Lums here, but there was also a Robo-Pirate standing out here. The pirate spotted Rayman coming, and it quickly ran through a door in one of the cliff walls, which led inside the caves. Then, after the Robo-Pirate had gone in, he pushed a button which activated a small machine-like object outside...this machine outside created a laser forcefield in front of the cave entrance, to prevent Rayman from entering.  
"Arrrrrgh!" yelled Rayman, looking at the laser forcefield that was blocking the cave entrance, and then the machine-like object that was creating the laser forcefield. Then he thought: "I bet that Globox could use his rain-dance to easily get rid of the machine that's creating this laser forcefield! I know Globox might be busy right now, but I still want to go tell him about it..."  
There was a Teensie standing nearby. It heard Rayman, and it said, "I'll help you get back to Globox's house!" It then opened a portal for Rayman, leading to Globox's House, so Rayman could get over to there-- unaware about what was about to happen to Globox...  
  
*****  
  
Meanwhile, on the pirates' prison ship, in Razorbeard's private cabin...  
Razorbeard was having his lunch--a Squab sandwich with purple cheese-- while doing his paperwork, keeping track of how many slaves his crew had captured so far.  
"Slaves now on board...let's see...33,524..." he wrote on his parchment.  
Suddenly, one of his henchmen knocked on his cabin door.  
"What is it?" growled Razorbeard.  
The henchman entered his cabin.  
"Your Furiousness..." spoke the henchman, "...Rayman has...already has...2 of the masks..."  
Razorbeard was now really, really furious at his henchman for not trying hard enough to stop Rayman!  
"What???! You idiotic fool!" yelled Razorbeard. He was so mad that he threw his hat at his henchman. "Go get him and bring him to me...dead or alive!!!"  
"Aye-aye, captain," replied the henchman.  
"And also," roared Razorbeard, "you had let that blue frog Globox escape earlier...well, I want you to recapture him!"  
  
*****  
  
Soon, Rayman hopped out the other end of the portal, and arrived at Globox's House, back in the sunny Woods of Light...  
"I hope I didn't come here at a bad time," said Rayman.  
However, he didn't see Globox there! And, weirder yet, none of his sons or daughters were present, either.  
However, Globox's wife, Uglette was here. She was sitting on the front porch of Globox's house and crying miserably.  
"Oh, it's awful," she weeped. "When the Robo-Pirates found out about Globox's escape, they flew their warship over here and re-captured him!"  
"Globox was just captured AGAIN????!!!..." sighed Rayman.  
"Yes, he was captured just a minute before you got here..." sniffed Uglette. "And this time, they also captured all of our sons, and imprisoned them in some abandoned mine shafts! I tried to stop the pirates, but...they threatened to make me their next slave, if I tried to stop them!"  
"Hmm..." thought Rayman. Then he groaned, "Oh, no! Not the mines! I heard that the mines are all the way at the far end of the cliff zone, across a wide stretch of nearly-impassible toxic lake! I must find some way to get to the mines and free the Baby Globoxes! But how?"  
Uglette wiped away her tears, and then thought: "I think that there may be a way for you to reach the pirate mines! Have you ever heard of Owlbert?"  
"Nope," replied Rayman.  
"Well," explained Uglette, "he is a very, very smart owl who lives in the cliffs zone close by the Echoing Caverns. He is always inventing new things...right now, he is working on building an aircraft. He is almost finished building it. Maybe, you could borrow the aircraft from him, and use it to help you reach the mines!"  
"Hmm...yes," thought Rayman, "I'll do that!"  
Then, Rayman hopped back through the portal which took him back to the Echoing Caverns. When he returned, he noticed a very tall, brown oak tree outside the Echoing Caverns. It had many windows and floors, and probably very many rooms. He ran up to it to see Owlbert...however, there was a sign outside Owlbert's tree house, which read:  
  
"Owlbert's house. Sorry, I am asleep right now. Please come back at night-time, which is when I'll be awake."  
  
"Arrgh, I should have known!" frowned Rayman. "Owls are only awake at night!"  
By the way, the time right now was 3:00 p.m.  
"...Hmm...I guess I'll have to do something else to keep myself busy, until night-time comes...maybe, while I'm waiting, I could explore another area?"  
He walked around the Echoing Caverns area, seeing if he could find any more Yellow Lums hidden here...and then he noticed that nearby, there was the entrance to another area that he could explore! The Precipice! That area was open right now, so he entered it! 


	18. Chapter 12: The Most Dangerous Trail

Chapter #12: The Precipice!  
  
Things were going to start getting arduous and suspenseful...Rayman could sense it...  
Rayman was now in the Precipice. He thought he'd explore this area while waiting for Owlbert to wake up. However, the Precipice looked awfully treacherous! Standing at the dizzying heights at the top of the cliffs, Rayman stared down into the deep, seemingly-endless gap between two cliffs... There were some long bridges leading through the precipice, made of the thinnest boards of wood. It looked like an unstable place.  
As if the area didn't look dangerous enough...guess what was coming back? Razorbeard's warship--and this time, it really wasn't giving up! The ship furiously and rapidly started firing hundreds of cannonballs down, bombing and breaking the wooden planks of the bridge that Rayman was supposed to cross! The bridges started collapsing! This had happened in the Marshlands earlier in Rayman's quest...but this time, it was ten times worse! Rayman became scared. He had to react fast! Quickly, Rayman ran ahead of the cannonball barrage, and ran across this bridge, as fast as his feet could take him, as the bridge collapsed very, very rapidly beneath his feet.  
KA-BLAMM-BLAMM-WHEE-BLAMM-BLAAAAAMM-BLAMM-BLAMM-BLAMM-BLAMM- BAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAM! That's the noise the cannonballs made as they flew across the sky and came down smashing right through the planks of the wooden, unstable bridges! KABLAMBLAMBLAMBALAMMMMMM!!!!! Rayman was in very hot pursuit from the warship, and had to run, run, run, across the collapsing bridge very quickly! Fast wasn't fast enough!  
Would Rayman be able to survive all the way through to the end of The Precipice? His survival depended on both the sturdiness of the bridges, and if he'd be quick enough to get across and avoid the cannonballs! There were also many Yellow Lums, sitting right on the bridges and in plain view, lucky for him. He picked them all up, but he had to do it very fast because the bridge he was on was falling and collapsing!  
This dangerous, scary path went on for about five whole minutes... Eventually, after this very, very loud, lengthy and almost-impossible-to- survive chase, the warship flew away. There was a deep cave in the cliff walls, which was too small for the huge warship to fly through. Rayman ran through this tunnel. It was just a short tunnel, which led into another outdoor area. There was deep water below the bridge that Rayman was on...it was toxic, acid water...and there was also a very high tower up ahead, with bridges leading around the sides of it, and up to the top of it! Rayman ran across the bridge...  
The warship then came back! It let another whole myriad of cannonballs go flying towards the bridge which Rayman was standing on. Then, it also fired a whole bunch of flying missile shells that had come to life! They trailed towards Rayman. There was no time to tame these shells; Rayman absolutely had to get a move on, or fall into the river below because the bridge would break into pieces and there wouldn't be anything to stand on! He couldn't waste any time--not even a single millisceond!  
He ran further and faster up the bridge. He reached the pathway which curved around the sides of the tower, and sloping upwards. The warship was still flying behind Rayman and chasing him. Its Jolly Roger flag blew back and forth in the gusty gale. And if this warship wasn't enough problems, the acid water in the area was now rising! And the tall tower was starting to slowly sink! The warship continued firing cannonballs breaking the bridge, threatening to get rid of Rayman once and for all, and the tower was sinking simoutaneously. Razorbeard was sure that Rayman didn't have a single slight chance of making it to the top of this tower...  
BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!!!!! BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!!!!! BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!!!!!  
It was a very long way up to the top.  
Soon...after being very close to falling off the bridges and down into the acid water below...Rayman did finally make it to the top of this exceedingly treacherous, doomful tower!  
"Woo-hoo!" yelled Rayman! "That was very, very close!!!"  
"What???!!!???!!!" yelled Admiral Razorbeard, from his warship, in disbelief. "If he's even able to survive THAT...then what am I gonna do to get rid of him??? Arrrgh!!!"  
At the top of this tower, Rayman saw there was a red button, which he quickly pressed...and it caused a long, metal bridge raise across the water surrounding him. Rayman hurriedly crossed over this metal bridge, which led to a tunnel in the cliff walls that were surrounding the tall tower. Rayman went into the cave that was inside the cliff walls.  
Inside this cave, there was an extremely deep, deep, deep pit leading down, down, down, downwards. Rayman looked down at it. Then, oops! He fell into it! He plummetted down, down, down, down... Rayman, thinking quickly, activated his helicopter hair to glide more slowly and safely. Down, down, down, down, down he glided through this deep, deep, deep, deep tunnel. And lucky for him, there were also a few Yellow Lums floating in mid-air! Rayman grabbed them all, as he glided down, down, down, down, down... It was a very, very, very long way down to the bottom of this downwards tunnel.  
Finally, he reached the bottom of the pit. There was a wooden bridge leading across the rest of the gap, to the cave exit. Suddenly, the warship appeared again! It, too, had flown into this cave--through another wide-open entrance.  
Rayman once again, ran across the bridge, as the warship was quickly destroying it.  
BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!!!!! BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!!!!! BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM!!!!!  
Suddenly, when Rayman was almost near the end of this rickety bridge and nearing the exit of the huge cave, a giant cannonball knocked Rayman off the bridge he was standing on--and Rayman fell off!  
"Aaaaah!" screamed Rayman. He was going to fall to his doom...  
"Har, har, har!" Razorbeard laughed, from his warship.  
However--AT THE LAST POSSIBLE MILLISECOND--Rayman quickly grabbed onto the edge of what remained of the bridge--just exactly before he could fall into the pit below. He then pulled himself back up, and he ran the rest of the way across the rapidly-collapsing bridge. A giant cannonball was trailing at full speed towards the last plank of the bridge...the last plank was about to be destroyed...THE LAST PLANK WAS ABOUT TO BE DESTROYED...Rayman ran off the last plank, and set foot on the solid cave ground up ahead...and, just as the final plank was breaking up into tiny pieces and disappearing...RAYMAN MADE IT TO THE CAVE EXIT!!!!! JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME!!!!! Through this cave exit, he came out at a vast, beach area, at the very bottom of the precipice.  
There was a gentle breeze out here... Everything was quiet, now..completely quiet and peaceful... Razorbeard and his warship had left, in fury and embarrassment. There were no more cannonballs raining down on Rayman...just dead silence surrounding the area...  
The sun was starting to set. On the far right, there was a gateway in the cliff walls, which seemed to lead to the next area. However, before entering this room, Rayman noticed several Yellow Lums lying around on the beach outside. He picked them all up, and then walked up to the gate. The gate in the cliff walls led into a small cavern room where there was another cage. When Rayman broke it open with his powerful fists, another Teensie came out of this cage!  
This Teensie spoke, "I hear that you want to see Owlbert and borrow his aircraft so you can get to the mines! Well, it's almost night-time now, so he's probably awake by now...so I'll take you back to him..."  
It opened a portal leading back to Owlbert's house outside the Echoing Caverns!  
Rayman now had a total of 655 Yellow Lums. Getting the ones in The Precipice had been really dangerous... 


End file.
